Morning Rundown: Offense Backs McAllister, Saves Hannahan

It may be time to admit something... Something that I probably will regret doing.

July 3rd, 2012

Los Angeles Angels - 5

Cleveland Indians - 8

W: Zach McAllister (3-1) L: Dan Haren (6-8)

[BOXSCORE]

So I'm not going to admit it. Basically I do it with good intentions because if I admit it, I may jinx him.

So I'll proceed as if I normally would.

That damn Jose Lopez. He's no good. He's a botch artist, he's stealing at-bats, he's horrible to watch, I hate him in the fourth spot, get rid of him. No more #LopeyTime, it's just #DopeyTime! 

Mr. DH and Clean Up Hitter had three hits last night. This is a few days after his five hit performance. 

I guess I just can't bash him anymore. I'm not going to moan and complain like I do, but in order to stay free and clear of a jinx, I'll simply not talk about Lopez from now on. 

You can bet all the pennies in the bottom of your coin jar though that I will be the first to ride his train out of town if things turn for the worse though.

This is Zach McAllister's line had Jack Hannahan manage to start that double play. Heck get one out and the home run isn't even that bad. But that was a double play ball and I will treat it as such.

6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB

Even the runs that he got charged with shouldn't count against him. I know I know, he has to pick up his defense. I agree with all that. But I think the guy deserves the benefit of the doubt. He's facing Dan Haren. Said Angels pitcher is getting beat up pretty bad. He's doing his part. I think we can say that McAllister shouldn't have had to pick up his defense in this one. He should have cruised through seven innings easy in this one as he wasn't even at 100 when he exited after six.

I'm taking McAllister's line every night. Even with the unearned runs in there, he gave up three earned through six. That's a quality start in the books. He didn't walk anyone, he did everything he needed to do.

He came out in the first inning and just mowed through the first three hitters. Came out in the second and looked just as good. He got into some traffic in the fifth, but got the ground ball he needed not just for one out, but two. I'm giving McAllister that start.

"He was very aggressive with his fastball, never got scared out of the strike zone," Acta said. "He handled [the fifth] very well. He could have just crumbled there and not even be able to go back out for another inning, and he did." 

My office has a softball team. We won our first game last Monday, got beat up pretty bad this past Monday. Nothing was working. But not even we made as bad of an error as Jack Hannahan made in the fifth inning with one out and runners on first and second. Hannahan got a perfect ground ball double player starter right to him and delivered a throw that couldn't have been any more imperfect.

I'm not saying our softball team could have made that throw, but even the professionals make some head scratching errors. Even as someone as pro as Hannahan. 

Jack only gets so much of a reprieve for the error. He essentially let five runs happen. He only knocked in one so his run differential is not positive. But let's not crush him please...

"It's always nice to be able to pick up your teammates," said Indians manager Manny Acta. "Jack has saved us so many runs over the last couple of years. For his teammates to pick him up so he doesn't have to have that hanging over his head, it was good, because he has picked up a lot of people here defensively."

Here will save more runs in the long run than he lets score. So while that was bad, he's someone defensively that will make up for it throughout the course of the season. There's no reason to bash him. Of course the win makes it easier.

You want to talk about McAllister picking up his defense, but really, that is not necessary when the offense picked up Hannahan. To come right back and score three runs in the next half inning says a lot.

"That's the sign of a great team," Hannahan said. "When you make an error and it leads to five runs in the fifth, it's huge as a team to come back in and throw up a three-spot in the next inning after getting the wind taken out of you like that. We've been having good quality at-bats, and that's what we did there in the fifth."

That was key. Dan Haren is someone that it could be difficult to score twice off of, so to come back against him in that fifth and ultimately chase him away and put up the runs you need to win the game. That's huge. That was really the biggest key to actually winning the game.