The 9PM start time problem hit me early this season. I fell asleep in the middle of the game, and then I got so tired, I stopped watching before it was over. I really wish we could get out of the AL West, not because of the competition, but of the late start times.
Anyway, what I did see wasn’t that great. Chris Young did not get off to a good start, throwing a boatload of pitches in the first few innings (92 over 4IP), giving up seven hits and 3 earned runs in his 4 innings pitched (for an ERA of 6.75). R.A. Dickey who followed him didn’t do much better. He pitched only two, and gave up an additional 3 earned runs. New pickup Matt Riley looked pretty decent, even getting Guerrero in a rundown between third and home. Bukvich, who is probably headed back to AAA when Almanzar comes back, or when we activate Astacio on Saturday. Brian Shouse took the loss, giving up the winning run to Steve Finley in extra innings (our second of those in 3 games).
Offensively, we were shut down for the most part by John Lackey, who looked even better than Colon & Washburn the last few nights. For the first four innings, he was lights out. But he ran out of gas in the fifth, and we put up a four spot to (at that time) take the lead. We even scored two runs on two wild pitches (including one that doinked catcher Molina in the facemask) – but Dickey couldn’t hold it. Of the six hits, only Mike Young had more than one (2). Hank Blalock got a hit, but he’s still slow getting out of the gate, with an average of .077 at the moment. One of the big highlights was the 15 pitch at bat by Adrian Gonzalez which lead to a walk (and later a run) when Dave Dellucci doubled him (and Hidalgo). Soriano’s hit was a home run, and it seems his power is OK.
General comment: The more I watch him, the better I feel about the acquisition of Richard Hidalgo. It could change of course, but for now, he seems like a really good pickup. The only real worry is that the stated reason of using this year as a springboard means we likely won’t bring him back next year, as we have several kids behind him.
You can view my full update for this game here.