Post-Game Report: Angels v. Indians (8/16/08)

This was your typical one run Angels victory, as they had just enough offense and the starter, John Lackey, gave the team a solid performance before handing the ball over to one of baseball’s best bullpens.

Francisco Rodriguez, who had 46 saves coming into today’s game, got the ball to start the ninth and looked to rebound from a poor outing three nights ago in which he blew the save and was ejected. It didn’t look good at first, as he yielded a single to Jhonny Peralta to open the ninth, but then got three quick outs, two on strikeouts, to match his single season saves mark set back in 2006.

While the Halos certainly did perform pretty well, the Indians will go home feeling as if they gave this one away. The Cleveland defense struggled immensely, as they recorded four errors on the afternoon. In addition to poor defense, they were unable to advance the runners in key points of the game. The Indians were 0-13 with runners in scoring position. The good teams, such as Boston or Chicago, will certainly capitalize when they have runners on base. In some respect, the Halos should feel fortunate that they only held the Indians to 3 runs.

With that said, here are tonight’s best…

Top 3 Angels Performers

1.) Garret Anderson extended his hitting streak to twenty games, as he went 2-for-4 on the afternoon.

2.) Since he hit a grand slam against the Yankees two weeks ago, Mark Teixeira has been on fire, as his batting average is well over .400. One of the major reasons is his patience at the plate, as Tex went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and a run against the Indians.

3.) Vladimir Guerrero continues to have success with Teixeira batting in the three hole. Vladdy went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs and his third stolen base of the season.

Angels Jeff Weaver of the Day (Note: JTD denotes the Angel that played the poorest): Howie Kendrick went 0-for-3 and has not registered a hit in this series.

Play of the Game: For those who were worried about Erick Abyar’s abilities to take over the everyday shortstop position, should feel a little more relaxed now. Erick Aybar’s acrobatic catch saved the Angels and prevented additional runs from scoring.

What to look for next game: The Angels have not lost a series to an A.L. opponent since getting swept by the Rays back in May. They’ll look to continue that streak with Joe Saunders taking the mound.

Game is Sunday @ 10:45 PM (KCOP)

Photocredit: Yahoo! Sports