Yuck!

I've mentioned before how the all right-handed lineup has defensive as well as offensive deficiencies. The new one unveiled today, which is the same as the old one except Tyler Colvin leads off before the righties of doom swing into action, has the same problems. These were evidenced today in the 7th and 8th innings when Jeff Baker made two errors and Derrick Lee another, resulting in four unearned runs. I have no idea what is going on with Derrick Lee in the field, but I do know that Jeff Baker cannot play 3B and should not play 3B.

Actually all you have to do to beat the Cubs nine times out of ten is to start a left-handed pitcher. Today, Lou pitched in with some stunning decisions as well to tip the scales in the Angels favor. For some reason, Piniella still has confidence in "Home Run" Howry and Grabow. Granted they had some help from sloppy defense, but, especially in the case of Howry, they had nothing to begin with. Why would you use these guys in a close game?

There was another bizarre controversy involving Carlos Silva, who seemed to be pitching well enough to remain in for another inning (70 pitches, 50 strikes). Supposedly he had some cramping in his calf and Lou didn't wan to risk an injury. The risk of an injury in this case is virtually non-existent, but in Lou's mind it seemed to be paramount and, in any case, he got all huffy about it in the post-game interviews. Silva, justifiably, looked incredibly pissed in the dugout and he must have been even more upset when he saw the shambles his successors made of a winnable game. Especially weird was the fact that the tactical genius Piniella allowed Silva to make the final out of the 6th inning in a one-run game even though he had apparently decided to remove Silva from the game.

What's going on with this team? Despite all the adventures and sloppy play, they did make a run at it in the 9th before the Angels had to bring in their closer to finish things off.