There are a lot of jokes in the local press today about “not being a hitters Park”, or some other Park joke. I’ll resist that, although last night I have to admit I wasn’t rooting for him to do bad so he could be released. I have to wonder if he can do what Ryan Drese did last year. So far it seems to be working. And in the ninth game of the season, one of our starting pitchers got a win – and it was Chan Ho Park, of all people! Ho went 6.2 innings, giving up 3ER on 5 hits, and striking out six, including the side in the second. Most of the hits came in his last inning, when Buck adeptly pulled him before it got ugly. But before that, he was electric. I’m not ready to put myself behind him, but it was nice to see him pitch well, and it was nice to see Chan Ho fans in the stands again. If you read some of my early reports when Chan Ho first came here, I absolutely loved the atmosphere the ballpark had when he pitched well. There’d be entire sections of Korean fans, and they’d have signs, they’d have drums, they’d hoot and holler when he did something good. I really REALLY loved that atmosphere. It made me want to come to the ballpark just to check out the Park fans. I miss that. So in a way, yeah – I’d like him to do well, and bring that fun back to the Ballpark. However, my brain says it likely won’t happen. We’ll see, I guess.
Offensively, we did pretty well last night. Mike Young capitalized on a bases loaded situation with a clearing triple. Barajas, Mench, & Mike Young were all 2 for 4. Soriano was 3 for 5. We had one home run for the night, and it was by Adrian Gonzalez. And wow, was it a no doubter. Off the facade of the upper deck, as far as I can tell, and the Angels’ right fielder didn’t even make a run for it. The game felt a lot more in control than the final score of 7 to 5 would indicate.
Our bullpen tried to give it away again, but we managed to hold on. Doug Brocail gave up 2 earned runs, although I believe they scored on a Cordero pitch. Cordero did get his third save of the season after it originally wasn’t a save situation going into the 9th – he only pitched .1 of an inning.
A win is a win. I’ll take it.
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