Halo Highlights- Defense Does in the Angels

Well you can’t win em all. Ervin Santana pitched well for his second consecutive outing, but Chris Capuano out-dueled him and the Dodgers beat the Angels 3-1. The defense behind him, did him in and that started right out of the gate.

Dee Gordon led of the game with a single and scored when Albert Pujols committed an error. After a fly out, Santana uncorked a wild pitch to advance Hairston to third. Juan Rivera hit a groundball to Maicer Izturis at third who threw it away and allowed Hairston to score. The Angels cut the lead to one in the fifth when Howard Kendrick led off the inning with a double. Izturis grounded out to advance him to third and Erick Aybar drove him home with a single. The Dodgers responded right back in the top of the sixth. Gordon tripled and Hairston drove him home with a single for the last run of the game.

Santana seems to be finding his groove back with his second consecutive very good outing in a row, giving up four hits while striking out 10 over eight innings. If he can pitch like the good Ervin instead of the bad to go with the return of Jered Weaver, the Angels have the makings of a very good roation.

The rubber game will be today at 12:35 PT with Garrett Richards taking on Aaron Harang. If the Angels win it will be the sixth straight series they’ve won against the Dodgers