I think the Yu Darvish story will be the three act variety. Act One was his introduction. It included him being the unknown commodity as hitters faced him for the first time. We are beginning Act Two. He has faced to foes he has faced before. I think a lot of things are going on here. I honestly think he is thinking too much. Falling prey to that is his breaking pitch. But watching him on the mound today, you could see the wheels turning. So for the entirety of Act Two we will watch Yu figure it out. He hasn’t gotten to where he is by not being smart. In a sense he is going throw a slo-mo version of what got him in his very first start. He said his mind and body were not connected. Only Yu can determine the length of Act Two. I feel pretty certain that Act Three will be a good one.
Otherwise today, it appears whatever funk we were in at the plate is gone. Our situational hitting, after being horrible yesterday, worked pretty good today. Michael Young put together a nice game today at the plate and in the field. It was as good for him, I’m sure, as it was for us to see. A lot of talk on message boards about dropping him in the lineup. We know from past experiences that Mike is fiercely proud. I honestly see him asking Wash to be dropped in the order before Wash would actually do it.
One other thing crossed my mind today. I have been checking Twitter and various message boards. A lot of chatter second guessing Ron Washington. First, I might point out back-to-back AL titles. Secondly and most importantly, Wash has access to way more info than we have. He gets to talk to the players every day. We don’t. I know all about being an armchair QB, but you should always remember that. Wash is there. We are not.
Nice win and series sweep. The Angels remain hot and are now in second place. We have the Mariners who more than handled us in Seattle. Matt Harrison faces Kevin Millwood and Millwood was very good against us. Better than Millwood is. The Angels swept the Mariners. Let’s do the same thing.
No Pepper 