Light That Baby Up!

It's been a while since my last post, but I figure a bunch of Bay Area sports fans probably don't need constant updates on anything to do with Southern California. I don't blame you. I was just as happy as the rest of you to see the Lakers bend over and take it. A friend of mine is an admitted the NBA-is-obviously-rigged-just-look-at-the-evidence conspiracist, and I would be thrilled to disprove his ridiculous arguments when someone other than the Lakers and Celtics meet up in the finals. Hating aside, it's time to revisit the good ole boys down south.

Mike Scioscia notched his 1,000th win as a major league manager. He's spent all 12 years with the Angels and has led them to the postseason 6 times, including the 2002 Wild Card to World Series Champs dream season. The ex-Dodger has fully invested himself in the Angels organization and the city of Anaheim, much like Mike Montgomery coming to Cal. Scioscia's got a great rapport with his players, just look at Torii and Vernon giving him a gatorade bath. As Tim Salmon said in the post-game report, Mike was probably on the trainer's table icing his hammy after a sprint like that.

After proving to the world that the Red Sox are not indeed our daddies, the Halos managed to take 2 of 3 from the surprise team of the season. The Indians are playing really good baseball. Their starters are strong and their hitting is stronger. They gave the DreamWeaver his second loss of the season and Dirty Haren another no-decision. Remember Fernando Rodney? Yeah, he was the closer going into 2011 and sucked it up in the opening weeks. Now frequenting the setup spot, Rodney recorded two wins against the tribe. What the hell is going on!? Ok, ok, I'll take what I can get. We'll walk away from this series up 2 games on Texas and Oakland (kudos, Eric) and pretend that didn't happen.

Highlights:

Mark Trumbo had 3 infield base hits in the last two games against the Tribe. The guy is 6'4" and 220 lbs, and he managed to leg out three choppers off the dirt and plate. You expect that sort of thing from Bourjos, who went first-to-third on a grounder to LEFT FIELD - NO THROW! Couldn't find a video of it, instead enjoy Petey taking second on a grounder up the middle, catapulting over a diving Youkilis and dashing to third (ruled a double with throwing error by Scutaro).

In other news, everyone's hitting, including Vernon Wells. Yippee! He better heat up quickly, I'm tired of seeing this $26 million "investment" strike out and pop up. I would do that for $26.00 (but I definitely couldn't hit one into the lighting scaffolding on top of the Green Monster, yikes).

Rookie starter Tyler Chatwood gave up 1 run in 8 innings on his way to another ND in yet another extra-inning game. Weaver will be back to form soon enough, and Haren, Santana and Pineiro are looking reeeeaaal good in the 2-4 spots.

Looking ahead, the White Sox are back in town this week, and I'm hoping for another sweep. Tomorrow is wrestling mask world record day, I might just have to go to that one to get me an Angels' wrestling mask. Beware Bay Area, these wrestling masks have the ability to turn the average human into the Dark Knight, or at least Nacho Libre. Either way, we're all gonna look like red versions of the Machine with those things on. Someone call Brian Wilson, we're gonna need a lot of sugar.