Redemption, thy name is interleague play.

Count me among the growing segment of baseball fans who has seen enough of interleague play, but I guess it does have its good points.  Specifically, interleague has always been very kind to the Halos.

Angels 4, Braves 1

This final game of this particular interleague series was all about giving the Angels a shot at redemption on multiple fronts.  Redemption from having choked away last night's game.  Redemption for Tyler Chatwood's last rough start.  Redemption for several struggling position players.  Check, check and check.

As much as I was waiting for the three-run Angel lead to disappear in the late innings, it never really came to pass.  A big part of that was Tyler Chatwood showing composure beyond his years to overcome early trouble and buckle down to keep Atlanta in check deep into the game.  That permitted the Angels to avoid using some of the more unsavory relievers in their pen and rely only on Downs and Walden.

The Halos even showed some uncharacteristic offensive pluck by scoring some insurance runs in the latter innings, led by the heretofore struggling veteran duo of Bobby Abreu.

 

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Atlanta Braves (26-22) @ Los Angeles Angels Anaheim (23-24)

Pitching Probables: ATL – Derek Lowe (3-3, 3.43 ERA)  LAA – Tyler Chatwood (2-2, 4.50 ERA)

Game Info: 12:35 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

What is it about this series and sinkerball pitchers?

It was Tim Hudson in Game 1, Joel Pineiro in Game 2 and now Derek Lowe and (sorta) Tyler Chatwood today.  I sure hope everyone watching today likes groundballs.

Me, I'm hoping that Derek Lowe's sinker works about as well as Tim Hudson's did on Friday.  I have not stats to back this up, but I have always felt like the Angels get killed by sinkerball pitchers since the Halo offensive aggressiveness plays right into their hands.  But that wasn't the case Friday and I really hope it isn't the case today because the Angels desperately need to keep building offensive momentum.

I know it comes as a shock but the Angels played yet another extra inning game. That makes 11 this season, tops in the majors. There is plenty of blame to share for this defeat but I am going to place the bulk of it at the feet of Manager Mike. Scioscia should have seen this coming and pulled Pineiro after six innings. Joel was okay but by no means dominant. I know it's hard to trust the collection of stiffs that make up the bullpen, but I think it would have been better to give them a four run cushion to blow rather have what happened last night happen. After the disaster of a seventh inning, the Angel offense returned to form for the rest of the game and the Braves were able to steal themselves a victory. Glad I stayed up late for that...

Angels 4 Braves 5

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Atlanta Braves (25-22) @ Los Angeles Angels Anaheim (23-23)
Pitching Probables: ATL -- Tommy Hanson (5-3, 2.35 ERA) LAA -- Joel Pineiro (2-0, 1.98 ERA)
Game Info: 7:05 PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

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The Angels will try to put together a winning streak behind Pineiro, who has been sensational sense joing the rotation from the DL early in this year. I would hope that the Halos saved some of their run scoring mojo from last night and can try to apply it to another hot pitcher in young Tommy Hanson. I'm not going to to even try to tell you about Hanson since I barely follow the National League, but his Wikipedia page says he's good, so it must be true.

 

See this is why I love the Angels. They can stink up the joint for the better park of the week then with one game can look like they will march to the World Series without any trouble. How can one team both frustrate and enliven me so. Okay, so maybe I'm overstating this win a bit, but it was awfully nice to see such a complete win. At least, the part I actually got to see. I lost out on the first three innings due to my cable companies stubborn refusal to show all Angel games in HD. So what I got when I recorded the game was the fourth inning on. But have no fear I will recap as if I saw the whole thing...

Angels 9 Braves 0

I remember the day, way back when, when we were all excited to see Jordan Walden get his shot in the majors. I remember seeing him dominating and hoping I could see the day where Walden would be the Angels full time closer. I envisioned K's upon K's, saves upon saves, and wins upon wins for that kid. I remember when Walden was giving the full-time closer gig and exploding with pure joy and enthusiasm. Walden may be the closer of the future, but he definitely isn't the closer of the present.

I hope you've shaped up by the time this goes live.

I present to you a question of etiquette at the grocery store, specifically Trader Joe's.

Maybe I'm just socially retarded (a strong possibility), but I never know what to do when checkout at Trader Joe's.  Unlike most grocery stores, there is only one person working the register, meaning that person must function as both the cashier and the bagger.  I'm all for streamlining and multi-tasking, but this tends to leave me in an awkward position.  You see, when I buy a whole bunch of groceries, the person at the register has to scan all the items and they just start piling up there on the counter while I sit idly by.

The helpful side of me says that the right thing to do is to help the cashier by starting to bag the groceries myself.  It is just the polite, considerate thing to do.  However, it presents a logistical problem.  Since not all of the items have been pulled out of my cart, I can't really properly stack things in the bag without risking having to rearrange things later or wind up with a heavy item potentially smashing a smaller item, so that make me just want to wait until the cashier is done.  But if I wait until the cashier is done, then they'll just bag the groceries themselves, right?  But if I just stand there with my thumb up my butt and let the cashier do everything, that makes me kind of a dick, I think.  I really don't know what to do.

Well, I could just shop at Gelson's instead.  Yeah, that sounds eaiser.