A Nice Comeback

After Felix Peña spotted the Athletics 3 runs in the first things were not looking good for the Angels. That didn’t stop them from trying hard against one of the hottest teams in baseball right now. Perhaps it was the heat, perhaps it was the underdog syndrome, perhaps they just needed to show that they’re still relevant in the AL West, but somehow, the team managed to come back for a 4–3 victory.

Back Over .500

With the win, the Angels climbed back over the .500 mark for the first time in August. And to do so, they needed solid outings from the starting pitching, the bullpen, and the offense.

After surrendering 3 runs in the 1st, Peña settled down and ended up shutting down the A’s for the rest of his 5 2/3 innings. It was good to seE him overcome his early game trouble and shake it off. Once he left, the bullpen pitched well too. They threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings to keep Oakland within striking distance.

On the offensive side of thing, Albert Pujols became the 9th player in major league history to pick up 1000 hits in both the American League and the National League. His single in the 6th didn’t score any runs or amount to anything but perhaps the historic nature of it helped propel the team to victory.

Other than his hit, Kole Calhoun hit a 2 run homer in the 3rd and Justin Upton hit a 2 run home run that made the difference in the game in the 6th. David Fletcher also chipped in with a couple of hits and on the whole, the offense looked pretty good leaving only 2 men on base.

With the home runs and the fighting to overcome the early game deficit, I’d usually feel like I should give my Player of the Game to one of the offensive stars of the game. Instead I’m gonna hand it to the bullpen who surprised me with their solid pitching. Hopefully they’re learning and will keep pulling off tricks like this going forward.

Sports – Angels – A Nice Comeback