Halos Continue to Roll

After taking two of three from the O's in Baltimore and sweeping the Chowds in Boston, the Angels marched into Yankee Stadium and doubled up the Skanks last night 12-6.  Providing the firepower last night were Torii Hunter, Vlad Guerrero and Juan Rivera.  Each hit 3-run homers, Hunter's and Rivera's coming off of Andy Pettitte who gave up 9 earned runs.  Garrett Anderson went 4 for 5 for the second night in a row.

Although the Angels improved their MLB-best record to 68-40 and increased the largest division lead in franchise history to 12.5 games over the second place Rangers, they lack the swagger that some teams would try to pull off.  The Halos are quietly walking through the American League winning series after series by playing team ball.  No one player is providing the "get on my back and I'll take you there" attitude, but playing the type of baseball most teams dream about.  Each night someone steps up and carries the team, whether it be dominating pitching, timely hitting and on some nights both.  When there were early season doubts about their starting pitching after losing both John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar, Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana stepped up to provide the one-two slapdown that good teams can inflict.  This pitching also carried the team when runs were hard to come by after injuries to Howie Kendrick and Chone Figgins. 

Since replacing Gary Matthews Jr. with Juan Rivera on July 10th, the Angels have lost 3 games.  Over the last month Rivera has hit .311 while hitting 6 home runs and driving in 16.  Rivera has over half the RBI as Matthews, in almost 200 less at-bats.  Matthews sucks and should be used only as a defensive replacement or pinch-runner from here on out.  His signing may go down in Angels' history as one of the all-time worst.  Making the situation worse, besides wasting $9 million on Matthews this year, his full no-trade clause until after 2009 guarantees he'll be with team for awhile (unless he gets tired of sitting on the bench and waives it).  After 2009, Matthews can block a trade to only 4 suckers, I mean teams.