By Jeff Flinn - AngelsWin.com Contributor
Raves:
Trevor Bell continues to pitch at least into the 6th inning (failing to do so just once in his past 5 starts), and does it without walking any batters.
The bullpen, for a change, was lights out (3 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, ZERO walks, 6 Ks). Jordan Walden looks like the real deal. Jepsen needs to pitch like he did last night more often. Rodney looked like a closer.
Matsui gets the big hit, a 2-run homer.
Willits doubling to lead off the game, and then scoring, was huge. He still can't steal bases like he used to, but he is getting on base at a decent rate in 2010 (.348 OBP).
Callaspo hits his 2nd homerun as an Angel to add insurance late in the game. Slowly but surely his XBH skills are returning.
The Halos scored 4 runs despite only having 5 hits, and finally beat 2009 nemesis Jason Vargas.
Rants:
Two more errors for the defense.
Rivera is now 0 for his past 19. As each day goes by, that's more and more of his $5 million salary in 2011 that the Halos will have to pay after hopefully trading him away in the off-season. That rumor of Rivera being a 2nd half player is just THAT. He had ONE good 2nd half in 2006, and that's it. Even with his 24-62 stretch that started just before the ASB, his post-ASB OPS is still a measly .669.
Hunter strikes out 3 times, and now is RBI-less since August 6.
Wood has a TON of work to do in the Arizona fall league.