Bobby Abreu and Peter Bourjos shine for Los Angeles
Angels as Tampa Bay Rays crash out
The Los Angeles Angels have been riding high on cloud nine, lately. And why wouldn’t they? The ball club, earlier, was disastrously struggling in the league this season but still with great talent in the squad, one could easily have said that the Anaheim
side has a decent chance at showing its true potential soon.
The Angels’ roster was packed with good players who were brought to their 3rd and last game of the series for a fixture against Tampa Bay Rays. They were visitors in the Tropicana Field and as the 25,794 fans looked on from the stands, the Angels
thwarted the home side 6 – 3.
The Los Angeles Angels had been on the road to horror land as their failure to win much landed them on third position in the American League West Division. However, last night proved to be a different night altogether for them. The team featured a vengeful
Scott Kazmir on the mound. After being traded to Los Angeles on 28th August 2009, the former Tampa Bay man helped clinch an important win.
The night’s hero turned out to be a tough challenge for his old club while they tried to generate a lead against his new home. For Scott, this proved to be an important match as the ball thrower had shown awful performances in the last 6 weeks. Since 7th
August 2010, he had gone on without even a single victory to his name. Fortunate enough, he now seems to have found his lost form which surely would be big news for his manager, Mike Scioscia. The maestro produced 4 strike outs in his 103 pitches while he
played for 5 innings and conceded 6 hits and a run.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay Rays appeared to have been hitting an all time on frustration. After the Yankees loss and a half point deficit, they could have won the game and clinched the lead against Angels but they couldn’t. Jeff Niemann featured in the game whose
inclusion felt more like a strategy from Joe Maddon. Niemann is currently facing turbulent times on the mound. The ace man struck out 5 hitters but also allowed 5 runs off 6 hits.
Bobby Abreu began the show with a tantalizing exhibition of prowess. His 369 feet homer to the right stunned the crowd as Angels moved up with 1 run on the board. Rays opened their arms as well for a display of aggression. They got the equalizer shot off
Kelly Shoppach, who smashed a hard 366 feet right homer in the bottom 2nd. This equalizer didn’t last long as Peter Bourjos produced another stunning 384 feet homer to the left to get Howard Kendrick, Hank Conger and he himself, back home for 3
runs.
With this, the side was 4 – 1. Hideki Matsui got involved for the 5th run while it was Torii Hunter who got the uplift. Matsui doubled to the deep centre and drove in the run to make it 5 in the 5th innings. It was then that Abreu banged
a stellar homer down the right side of the pitch. The hit got him his career’s 9th 20 home runs and 20/20. This was already his career’s 15th multi home run fixture. The Rays reacted late as Ben Zobrist scored the team’s 2nd
off Dan Johnson’s grounder out to first in the bottom 8th. Reid Brignac, afterwards, scored the 3rd in the 9th when Zobrist singled to the centre.
Finally, the match ended with Angels on top while Rays left chasing at 6 – 3. Later, Tampa Bay’s manager, Joe Maddon, had a few words to share. “Everybody's grinding it out. The Angels are not in it right now. Nevertheless, they are going to give you their
best. They gave it to us for three. They easily could have won all three games. Again, I applaud our effort."
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