As good as game #1 went, game 2 went better. Why? Well, no matter how the game turned out, something cool happened. As it had been raining with a lot of lightning, there was a PA announcement at the ballpark right as they were starting to announce the lineups for Game 2. They told everyone in the upper deck to go downstairs. So I think everyone did except for a few lone souls. Anyway, I ended up sitting in the third row right behind home plate. Not bad. :) I was on TV quite a few times, too.
Having said that, the game was spectacular. Quite honestly, that couldn’t have been Dave Burba out there pitching. No runs given up until the seventh? That couldn’t have been him at all – no walks! Yeesh. I’ll take the pitching performance, but quite honestly, I was hoping he’d pitch bad this outing and last, so we could release him as was talked about in the papers. Of course, now we could trade him, so he may yet go. In the bottom of the first inning, I got a much different view of a home run ball. I’m used to seeing home run balls from upstairs, but Arod’s monster home run in the bottom of the first was quite spectacular to watch from directly behind home plate.
I expected us to score a ton, because Anaheim’s pitcher John Lackey was making his major league debut. And other than the home run ball to Arod, not a lot was done against him, which is impressive. Sure, he got burnt by Arod, but then a lot of people get burnt by him, and if you’re gonna get burnt, it might as well be against someone of his stature. Our other two runs came on a couple of doubles and a groundout in the fourth – and that was it from our offense. But it was enough.
Our pitching was quite quite good. Jay Powell came in to relieve Burba, and did allow an inherited runner to score on a ground ball, but that’s it. Rocker came in, and was lights out (as he was the first game). He got an EXTREMELY GOOD reception as he came running in from the bullpen in the 8th. Rocker got an extremely impressive strikeout of Tim Salmon which really energized the crowd as well as Rocker too (see the reaction shot in the photo section from this game).
We now have won 7 in a row – a season high. The two wins came in our own division which is good. Seattle lost too, so we picked up a game and a half in the standings tonight. I doubt it will make much difference in the complete season standings, but this helps in putting us back to respectability, I think. Would be nice if we could get some of these runs tomorrow night for Ismael Valdes. :)