By Jeff Flinn - AngelsWin.com Contributor
Raves:
Peter Bourjos continues to make the OF defense so much better, robbing batters of home runs now on top of everything else he does out there.
His hitting is slowly coming around, with hits in 4 of his past 5 games. His plate patience is improving, and we are starting to see his speed via SBs.
The Halos bullpen allows just 2 baserunners in 3 2/3 innings. Kohn looked good against the 2 hitters he faced. Jepsen had another solid outing in response to the poor one in Boston. Despite some struggles, K-Rod 2.0 continues to shut the opposing team down (nearly 9 scoreless innings).
The team defense just looks different since Bourjos arrived.
Callaspo is not generating many extra base hits since arriving here (4 doubles and one home run in 98 at bats), but he's giving a clue of his future value here with his 9 game hitting streak and hitting over .330 since being acquired.
Knowing that Trumbo and Conger, and maybe even Romine, could be coming up soon to complete the calling up process gives me hope; because now they can begin to plan for taking back the AL West in 2011.
Rants:
Not a good night at the plate for the Halos YET again. Outside of Bourjos creating a run in the 7th and Matsui driving in 2 with a 3rd inning double, the Halos continue to bring new meaning to poor hitting.
Torii Hunter seems to have fallen in love with grounding into double plays.
Abreu is 3 for his past 21 and not looking good.
Aybar, after a couple of solid games, goes back to looking over matched at the plate.
Mathis just totally puzzles me why he still gets a lot of starts. That 3 game rest that Mike Scoiscia gave him didn't do much good.
AGAIN, the team has no offense late with nothing after Bourjos' leadoff 7th inning single.
I think I'm getting close to the end of my rope with Kazmir though. His pitching was not as decent as the stats say, thanks to Bourjos' great defense last night.
To me, Kazmir almost seems to have morphed into Rick Ankiel. He had FOUR more walks, giving him 60 in just 113.2 innings. I'll be glad when 2011 is far enough along and they can trade him and not have to eat much money.
The Halos hitters just don't seem to have a lot of fire, which explains the seemingly going through the motions constantly late in games!
I've already put a wrap on AL West contention, and this game didn't show me anything different!
