Game Report: Wednesday, June 7th vs Anaheim

by Patrick L. Kennedy on Jun 9, 2006 5:03 AM EDT

Jered Weaver continued his strong start, pitching six strong innings, and the LA Angels of Anaheim defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 6-2, at Tropicana Field. Kendry Morales and Mike Napoli each homered for the Angels, who won the final two games of this three-game set. Orlando Cabrera and Garret Anderson finished with two hits and an RBI each, as the Angels have won five straight series, going 10-5 over that span. Weaver (3-0) allowed two runs on four hits, striking out four to win his third straight start since being called up from Triple-A Salt Lake. The right-hander has allowed just four runs on 11 hits in 19 1/3 innings over his three starts. Carl Crawford and Julio Lugo each homered for the Devil Rays, who have dropped 12 of 16 games. Seth McClung (2-8) suffered the loss, his fourth in as many starts. The right-hander allowed five runs -- four earned -- on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.

[Sports Network via KSAT]

How I Stacked Up

Here's what the '3 Up, 3 Down' you see on the sidebar (based strictly on my opinion) would have looked like had I gone with Win Probability...

3 Up
LF Carl Crawford: 4.5 WPA
2B Jorge Cantu: 3.1 WPA
SS Julio Lugo: 2.0 WPA
RP Ruddy Lugo: 1.0 WPA (4th)

3 Down
SP Seth McClung: -22.7 WPA
1B Ty Wigginton: -9.3 WPA
CF Rocco Baldelli: -7.9 WPA
RP Brian Meadows: -1.1 WPA (7th)

My Thoughts

-Well, I guess I could have seen this coming. My blind faith that this series would actually be a good one for the Rays should have been tempered after the game one win. After all, when Anaheim strings together 11 singles, and not one scores, perhaps you are looking at a fluke. And indeed, it was so. Anaheim proved that in the last two games, scoring 18 runs in the final two games to walk out of St. Petersburg with a win. Rocco returned, but didn't contribute much (as you can see above, he was actually a drawback), but at least the Rays could claim some type of win in getting their full team back on the field, and I say that knowing full well the valuable contributions that Shinji Mori, Luis Ordaz, and Dan Miceli would have brought.

I am confident that with some time, the rust will come off some of our slumping players just off the DL (even Huff will come around a little), and this team will return to form. It may not be as good offensively as last year's team, but I believe with Waechter gone and Shields in, the rotation can be equal or better than next year. Also, let's not forget that their last three losses have come against Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana, and Roy Halladay.

But on this day, the only offense belonged to Julio Lugo and Carl Crawford in the form of solo home runs, and Seth McClung struggled, so it comes as no surprise (as you can see from the graph) that this game was over nearly from the start. But for a fan whose team has lost two games in a row and is getting ready to head out on a nine game road trip, I am feeling quite good with the full starting nine back. And with the Royals coming up, the sky is, honestly, too low of a limit.

About Last Night...
Fan Graphs
DevilRays.com
Angels.com
St. Petersburg Times
The Tampa Tribune I
The Tampa Tribune II
North County Times
Orange County Register

Other Links
USA Today piece on Kazmir
Bird. Bird Meets Fastball. Bad Things Happen.
Jamie Shields Story

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