Winning Streak Snapped at Eight as Angels Fall to Dodgers

C.J. Wilson may look and smell 100% handsome. But his pitching performance tonight looked and smelled 100% like dog excrement. The offense, on the other hand, continues to look like a well-oiled machine. I’d be willing to wager that, nine times out of ten, when a team scores seven runs, they are going to win.

The Angels got off the mat, scoring early and often in today’s game. Two runs came across in the first on a Mark Trumbo strikeout (I’ve always wanted to write that). The passed ball allowed both Mike Trout and Mr. Wheels himself, Albert Pujols, to score. A Scott Van Slyke double in the second cut the lead in half, but Howie Kendrick pushed the score to 3-1 when he hit his own RBI double in the third inning. The Angels seemingly broke the game wide open in the fourth inning. Erick Aybar ripped an RBI double to right field, Mike Trout then tripled home Aybar and Pujols brought home Trout with a sacrifice fly. A 6-1 lead. This team was on cruise control right? WRONG!

C.J. gave a run back in the fourth on a Ramon Hernandez sacrifice fly, but it wasn’t until the fifth when the $#!+ really hit the fan. Mark Ellis drove home two runs with an RBI double. he was followed by Matt Kemp who struck out for the first out of the inning (He had four of those today, by the way. Congratulations on the Golden Sombrero, Matt). Then Adrian Gonzalez singled home Ellis, and Van Slyke then doubled home Gonzalez. That would be C.J.’s last batter as he was relieved by Michael Kohn, but the damage had been done. That 6-1 lead was gone. But hey, at least C.J. is flake free.

From there, a bullpen that had been air-tight over the last week and a half, cracked. Kohn couldn’t find the strike zone in the sixth inning, and was eventually charged with a run when Dane De La Rosa was unable to clean up Kohn’s “second and third with one out” mess. Howie Kendrick singled home Josh Hamilton in the seventh to tie the game up at seven-apiece, but in the bottom of the seventh, the seemingly invincible Robert Coello showed his human side when he gave up his first run of the season on a Jerry Hairston RBI single. Coello did account for two of Matt Kemp’s four strikeouts though. So there is that.

The Angels started to get something going in the eighth, but that inning was cut short when Erick Aybar mis-read a Mike Trout fly ball. He had already rounded second when Andre Ethier made the catch, and was doubled off when Adrian Gonzalez applied the tag. Except he wasn’t tagged. Gary Darling, the home plate umpire, called Aybar out, even though Gonzalez never got his glove on him. As it were, the inning was over, and so was the last “threat” the Angels would mount.

They say all good things come to an end eventually, I just wish it didn’t have to end against the Dodgers. This one is going to be hard to shake off. The Halos are back at it tomorrow when they send Joe Blanton (GREAT!) to the mound against Hyun-Jin Ryu at 7:10 PM PST. Light up the fail-o, the streak is over. A new one starts tomorrow.