One down, 161 to go.
Notes from game #1, Angels 4, Rangers 1
Defensive woes continue - Mike Napoli dropped a routine pop up and Gary Matthews Jr dropped an even-more-routine fly ball to right center field. Not only did these errors cost the Angels outs, they caused John Lackey to throw 20+ more pitches in the 3rd inning. However, as annoying as errors are to a pitcher, there is no reason for Lackey to show his appreciation/frustration by walking the next two batters.
The bullpen is good - Justin Speier, Scot Shields and K-Rod pitched a combined 4 innings without allowing a baserunner.
Another year with no lefty in the pen? - Darren Oliver is the lone lefty in the bullpen this year. While the rest of the bullpen did their job last night, Oliver pitched to two batters and gave up a single and a walk. Could this be J.C. Romero all over again?
Caught Stealing record within reach - Shea Hillenbrand was caught stealing twice last night. At that pace, he will be caught 324 times this year. That will shatter Rickey Henderson's 1982 record of being caught 42 times in one season. It would also give him 333 for his career - two behind Henderson for the record. The real question here is why was Hillenbrand going? In 870 career games, he has stolen only 16 bases.
Let the 'We shouldn't have left Erstad go' complaints begin - Darin Erstad hit a 2-run home run in his first at-bat for the Chicago White Sox. The home run was useless as Chicago was already trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the 1st.
Other teams are benefiting from our good bullpen - Joel Peralta faced 7 Red Sox and struck out 4 of them including David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. Brendan Donnelly faced one batter and struck him out. J.C. Romero faced two batters and retired both of them.
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