Baseball

To paraphrase Lou Brown, easily one of the best fictional baseball coaches ever to grace the cinematic Majors: OK, we won a game Saturday. And we won Sunday. That’s called “two in a row”. And if we win again tomorrow, that’s called a “winning streak.” It has happened before! Now, clearly, quoting the infinitely quotable Major League in reference to the 2013 Angels is hardly an original thought and I’m not even the first to sling this particular gem around this week. However, I would dearly love to be one of the last because, much like Lou Brown in his follow up comments to this bit of awesomeness, I would like to believe that the Angels are heating up. Really, I would. But this season?? Always there is the Big B…what a Buttercup! Let me ‘splain (and, you know, see if I can throw in any more random movie references from the depths of my crazed brain while I’m at it!). Towards the end of the sad, sad debacle that was Wednesday night’s pitching implosion, abandon all hope…no, no, wait, here comes the Angels offense!…Nope, just kidding, more LOBsters than a large seafood chain could handle…Waaaaaiiiit, just kidding again, check out that offense!!…*facepalm* Nevermind, more LOBsters…emotional whiplash of a game, I tweeted, ‘This is such a buttercup game. And the Angels have just buttercupped all over the buttercupping thing. Blah.’ And, you know what, even though the Angels have a proto-winning streak going on here – potentially their third of the season, talk about *facepalm*! – that sentiment actually sums up the whole season so far for me. Because, yes, I was in part being cute and trying to interject some much needed levity into the situation by using the name of the Angels’ much hated – at least by, let’s call it, all fans in their right mind; the rest of you are highly suspect – 7th inning stretch ditty as a stand in for the long, drawn out f-bomb that most of us were feeling at that point. However, my word choice meant so much more as well. Let us review the lyrics of the song, shall we?: Why do you build me up (build me up) Buttercup, baby Just to let me down (let me down) and mess me around And then worst of all (worst of all) you never call, baby When you say you will (say you will) but I love you still I need you (I need you) more than anyone, darlin’ You know that I have from the start So build me up (build me up) Buttercup, don’t break my heart Forget all of the perfectly rational, ‘who in the hell thought that this song would be an appropriate rooting-for-the-home-team-at-a-sporting-event song and would they please turn their marketing card in…right now!’ thoughts you’re having at this moment because, sadly, this season they’re beside the point. Thus far the 2013 Angels are the Buttercup Angels. Always building us up, just to let us down again for another inning, another game, another streak, of the ‘you don’t want one’ kind. Offense starts coming back. Starting pitching blows a herd of goats. Starting pitching gets it done. Offense goes to sleep and/or the Angels bullpen decides to get all “flashback” on us and goes Arson Squad. Sweep the Tigers. Lose the next 5 – yes, count them, 5! – series. And so on, and so forth. So this proto-streak? I want it to be the real thing. Dear God I want it to be the real thing and the start of something great, but I just…I just don’t know. But if you’re about to throw the B word at me, you just zip your lip right there. There is no bandwagon. There never was. Seth and I are bleeding red fans who have nothing to jump off of. We love this team, even if this season like so many in the not so distant past, it’s a heavily frustrated, profanity laced, shouting kind of love. We’re still watching every game we can on TV. We’re still buying tickets to the Big A though, being less excited, we’ll probably attend closer to 15 games than our customary 20 – 25. It’s just the focus that has shifted. In another tweet this week, I confesse

Ryan Wright had a big night for Bakersfield in a win.

Ten observations that only a backup, middle child, left-handed quarterback can provide from the Seahawks first OTA practice on Monday.

Wonder if Paul Anka can pen another hit after this nosedive… But the thing that was most striking about Pujols is that he was always exactly as good as he had been the year before. He never had a bad year. He never had anything RESEMBLING a bad year. They called him “The Machine.” If you take the WORST statistical totals he had those first 10 years – that is, the lowest batting average he had over those 10 years, the fewest home runs he hit, etc.—you STILL come up with this season: .312 average, .394 on-base, .561 slugging, 33 doubles, 34 homers, 117 RBIs, 99 runs. Repeat: Those are his WORST numbers in those first 10 years. The guy was a first-ballot Hall of Famer on his worst day. And he was thrilling to watch hit. He stood at the plate with that wide stance – he looked so sturdy and immovable, like he was magnetically connected with the batters’ box. He was like a marble statue up there. ...But, even assuming he does again find the range, even assuming he has a few more productive years, the truth is that Pujols has entered a different phase of his career. After years of being the best player in baseball, Pujols is now sort of beside the point. Look: He is 33 years old, just beginning a $240 million contract, and he’s playing for an overpriced and kind of dreadful team that looks like it was built by a rotisserie baseball beginner who ran out at the last minute and bought three fantasy baseball magazines. He looks hurt. He looks tired. He looks out of place. He looks … well, truth is, who is even looking anymore?

Veteran left-hander and middle reliever Zach Duke's first start of year for the Washington Nationals began about as well as you could hope for it to... 10 pitches, three ground ball outs and a scoreless first in the first of three with San Francisco in AT&T Park. Giants' starter Ryan Vogelsong followed up on a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 first of his own with an 11-pitch, 1-2-3 second after which [counts on fingers] he'd retired six straight Nats to start the game. Hunter Pence hit a one-out single to center off the Nationals' starter in the home-half of the second for the first hit by either team. The Giants' right fielder decided not to test the Nats' right fielder Bryce Harper's arm on a second-straight single by Brandon Belt in the next at bat, settling for advancing to second in front of Andres Torres, and Torres hit an RBI double to left to drive Pence in and make it a 1-0 game early tonight in the Giants' home. A Brandon Crawford groundout to second brought in the second run, 2-0, before Duke retired the opposing pitcher to end a 17-pitch frame at 27 pitches overall after two. Zach Duke lined to left for a two-out single in the Nationals' third, collecting the first hit of the game off Vogelsong. The second hit, as it often does, came in the at bat immediately following the first, when Denard Span lined one right back at the Giants' starter and up the middle of the infield for a single of his own, but Steve Lombardozzi popped up on the first pitch he saw to give San Francisco's veteran right-hande three scoreless innings in AT&T. Duke gave up back-to-back one-out singles by Marco Scutaro and Pablo Sandoval in the Giants' half of the third, but both runners were stranded at the end of an 18-pitch inning that had Duke at 45 overall after three. Ryan Zimmerman took a 2-1 curve from Ryan Vogelsong to right for a one-out single in the top of the fourth, but he was erased from the basepaths when Adam LaRoche, in search of a hit to stretch his streak to 17 games, grounded into an inning-ending 4-6-3. Giants' first baseman Brandon Belt battled for six pitches and singled through the right side of the infield for a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth. Andres Torres singled through the left side in the next AB, collecting San Francisco's seventh hit off Duke. The Nats' lefty knocked a grounder from Brandon Crawford down and recovered in time to get a force at second for out no.1 of the Giants' fourth. Craig Stammen took over for Duke there with runners on first and third. A safety squeeze by the opposing pitcher brought the run in from third to make it 3-0 San Francisco, an RBI double to right by Angel Pagan made it 4-0 and an RBI single by Marco Scutaro made it 5-0 Giants over the Nationals after four. Roger Bernadina reached first safely on an error by Scutaro at second. One out later, Craig Stammen worked a two-out walk out of Ryan Vogelsong to get Denard Span to the plate, but a groundout to first ended the Giants' starter fifth scoreless. 5-0 San Francisco in AT&T. Buster Posey singled to start the bottom of the fifth, but was doubled up on a Hunter Pence grounder to short that started a 6-4-3. A Brandon Belt home run to center in the next at bat made it 6-0 San Francisco, but after back-to-back two-out singles by Andres Torres and Brandon Crawford, Craig Stammen hit the opposing pitcher on the hand and Vogelsong quickly exited the game and headed straight for the Giants' clubhouse. Not good*. 6-0 Giants after five. * - Update from the Giants later said Vogelson suffered a "fractured right hand." Left-handed sidewinder Javier Lopez took over on the mound for San Francisco in the top of the sixth and retired the side in order in a quick 14-pitch inning of work for the Giants' reliever. Pablo Sandoval lined a two-out opposite field single to left for the 14th hit of the night by the home team in the home-half of the inning. Buster Posey stepped in with two down and popped out to Adam LaRoche at first to end the Giants' sixth.

Ryan Vogelsong was having his best start of the year, dang it. There's no good reason why that should make this worse -- as if another bad start would have made us say, "Smell you later and thanks for Detroit!" -- but it does make it worse. Vogelsong was having his best start, and now he's broken. Vogelsong is out indefinitely with a fractured right hand, which he broke swinging on a fastball that tailed in on him. When hitters get hit on the hand by a pitch, you'll usually see the trainer out there for a few minutes and the hitter give the hand the ol' squeeze test for a while. Dave Groeschner was on the field for about 30 seconds before he took Vogelsong back in the clubhouse. That's right about when optimism went out for a pack of smokes and never came back. Mike Krukow said about six weeks on the broadcast, and while that was an educated guess, it jibes with the other fractured hands I could rustle up. It felt like Vogelsong was back, dang it. I know it was just one game, but it felt like he was the old new old Vogelsong again for the first time this season. But it's either Chad Gaudin or Mike Kickham time for the next month-and-a-half, with an outside chance of Chris Heston. Kickham isn't on the 40-man roster, though it shouldn't be too difficult to clear some room. There's time to figure that out. Tonight's reserved for saying things like "Dammit, Vogelsong." Update: two fractures, dislocated pinky, surgery, and six weeks. Dammit.

Travis Hafner's ninth-inning homer tied the game and Vernon Wells' ground-rule double provided the lead an inning later, powering the Yankees to a 6-4 victory over the Orioles on Monday at Camden Yards.

Jon Lester says Adam Dunn has "stupid pop," and it was more than enough to beat the Boston left-hander Monday night. Read more Adam Dunn news

White Sox starter John Danks seems lined up to start Friday against the Marlins, MLB.com reports Monday. Although the White Sox don't have anything written in stone, it appears Danks will make his season debut versus Miami [...] Read more John Danks news

CHICAGO — When Jon Lester took the mound last night, he was trying to become the first Red Sox lefty starter since 1973 to go at least 7-0 to begin a season.But he also was facing his personal kryptonite.In his best and worst seasons, Lester struggles against the White Sox. Indeed, it has become as predictable as winter blizzards in Chicago. In nine previous starts against the White Sox entering the series opener here, the Red Sox’ ace lefty had a 5.20 ERA, his highest against any AL team. Read more Jon Lester news