Angels Sweep Dodgers, Split Freeway Series

Coming into the Freeway Series, the Angels were riding an eight-game winning streak, coming off of a four-game sweep of the Royals. Coming out of the Freeway series, the Angels are now winners of 10 of their last 12, and have their Ace back in Jered Weaver. Things are coming together, even if I am a little bit disappointed that they didn’t outscore the Dodgers 72-3 during the last four games.

Those silly Dodgers got the scoring started on an Adrian Gonzalez sacrifice fly in the first inning. The Angels answered back when Sir Walks-A-Lot, Chris Iannetta, doubled home Howie Kendrick in the second inning. Kendrick then tripled in the fourth inning, and was brought in when Alberto Callaspo blooped an RBI single into shallow right-center field. Ramon Hernandez then hit his second home run of the season in the top of the sixth to tie the game back up at two, and officially put the game into see-saw mode. The deciding hit of the night came from recent pick up, Chris Nelson. With two outs, and runners on the corners in the bottom of the sixth inning, Nelson hit one back at Ronald Belisario. Belisarion did his best Jonathon Quick impersonation, but by the time the deflected baseball made it’s way to Mark Ellis, Nelson was safe at first, and Howie Kendrick had scored the go-ahead run.

Confidence was high at the outset of the game, what with Jason Vargas getting the start. And Vargas did not disappoint. Jason made one mistake to Hernandez, and was on the wrong end of a manufactured run in the first inning, but his final line for the night included seven innings and six strikeouts. He walked two and gave up the two runs, but his performance fell right in line with the kind of performances he’s had over the last month. Following Vargas were Garrett Richards and Ernesto Frieri who teamed up to throw two scoreless innings to finish off the cross-town rivals. It should be noted that, after a couple of very shaky outings from Frieri, he allowed on one baserunner, and needed only 14 pitches to get through the ninth inning, ending the game on a called third strike. He was, Ernasty.

The Angels open up a four game set against the Astros tonight. Hopefully, they don’t mop the floor with the Angels like they did when the Angels went to Houston. Tommy Hanson makes his return from the restricted list opposite Dallas Keuchel. Game time is at 7:05 PM PST. Light up the halo, the Angels recent surge has them almost relevant with a 25-29 record. First stop, .500. Next stop, WORLD SERIES!