| Shane Cobb. 23rd April, 2006 - 3:55 pm
 Game Recap #18. Angels 5, Athletics 4
Jeff Weaver picked up his first win as an Angel on Saturday in a 5-4 Angels victory. He made one mistake in the game and that was to Oakland’s Nick Swisher who took the blunder over the right field wall for a grand slam. The grand slam didn’t hurt the Angels as K-Rod and the boys closed down the A’s for the rest of the game.
When you’re hot, you hit everything on the sweet part of the bat. Garret Anderson is currently hot. He mashed his second homerun of the series against Dan Haren on Saturday. Garret carried the offense the whole game by going a sweet 4 for 4.
Weaver started the game retiring the first six batters successively. It wasn’t till the third inning he allowed a base runner. But Weaver did have a rough 5th inning. He started the inning off giving up a single to Jay Payton. He got the next batter Scutaro to fly out Vladdy. He then walked Jason Kendall followed by a single by Dan Johnson. With the bases now loaded, he showed great life and struck out Mark Ellis.
With two outs now in the inning, Scioscia and Black thought Weaver would get out of it. Well, he did manage to get out of the inning, but after he gave up a grand slam to Nick Swisher. Brennan Donnelly and Scot Shields would pitch shut out seventh and eighth innings each picking up a hold. Francisco Rodriguez was brought in the 9th inning to close it out, which he did, earning himself his 6th save of the season.
The offense came through in big moments of the game. The Angels would get on the board first with a RBI single by Vladimir Guerrero. In the 4th inning Garret Anderson would hit his solo homerun, 4th of the season. Like the A’s, the Angels too would have a big 5th inning. Adam Kennedy started off the rally with an RBI double to deep right field. Kennedy would then score on a wild pitch by Haren. The old man Timmy Salmon would give the Angels their last run of the game on RBI single.
The Angels are once again at the .500 mark. Despite being .500, the Angels are first in the AL West. But the Texas Rangers are playing really well as of late winning 7 of their past 10 games.
Player of the game: Garret Anderson – GA went 4 for 4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, and 1 run scored. This game alone enhanced his batting average from .292 to .333.
Disappointment – Casey Kotchman – Casey has still not worked his way out of his season long slump. His average now sits well below the Mendoza line at .155.
Next game: April 23rd, Sunday vs. Oakland Athletics
On the mound: Kelvim Escobar (2-1, 3.71 ERA) vs. Esteban Loaiza (0-2, 8.59 ERA)
Angels record: 9-9
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