Game 25: Angels 5, A’s 3

The Angels’ confidence is back.

Shane Loux continued to impress on Tuesday night by pitching 7 solid innings, and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Oakland A’s 5-3. Loux gave up just 1 run over his 7 innings while walking one batter and striking out 3. Darren Oliver, fresh off a stint on the DL, pitched a scoreless 8th inning. The 9th inning got a bit tricky – Scot Shields got the first out, then walked Jason Giambi before giving up a 2-run homer to Matt Holliday. He was then removed for closer Brian Fuentes, who got the last 2 outs quickly, and earned his 7th save of the year.

The top of the order was clicking tonight – Chone Figgins and Gary Matthews Jr. went a combined 5-9 (.555) with all 5 RBIs from the 1-2 slots. Erick Aybar, in his first game back since getting hit in the face in New York, went 2-3 with 2 runs scored.

Thoughts from the game…

• Mike Napoli and Howie Kendrick went a combined 0-8 with 6 K’s. Ouch.
• Shane Loux pitched VERY well tonight. Look for him to stay in the rotation as the 5th starter until Kelvim Escobar makes his return sometime next month.
• Bobby Abreu’s power outage is starting to worry me. Sure, he’s getting on base, but is a homer too much to ask?
• What is wrong with Scot Shields?
• The Angels’ record now stands at 12-13, just 1 one game under .500. That’s amazing considering all they’ve been through up to this point.