Salt Lake Bees infielder Brandon Wood (above, covering second), catcher Bobby Wilson, infielder Matt Brown and outfielder Brad Coon were placed on the Triple-A club’s Temporary Inactive List so they could attend the funeral of former Angels and Bees teammate Nick Adenhart in Maryland.
They have missed the Bees’ past three games, but the club is off to a 5-2 start.
A number of the Angels’ young players will be playing winter ball this season. The main place to keep your eye on will be the Estrellas team in the Dominican Republic, run by Angels coach Alfredo Griffin.
Planning to play for Griffin this winter are Angels outfielder Reggie Willits, infielder Brandon Wood, catcher Bobby Wilson and right-hander Shane Loux in addition to outfield prospect Brad Coon (team-high 17 steals at Triple-A Salt Lake last summer) and C Ben Johnson (a Double-A Texas League All-Star).
Willits will be trying to recoup the at-bats he lost by spending most of the summer buried on the Angels’ bench. He hit just .194 in 82 games (and 108 at-bats) this season — a big step back after hitting .293 in 136 games the year before. A good showing in winter ball will re-establish his credentials as an every-day option in the majors (if not for the Angels, then for some other team.)
But Wood will be the most important one to watch. Steady playing time in a highly-competitive winter league will be a good test of whether his second-half surge in Triple-A this summer really did signal his readiness for a major-league job.
Slowly, the Angels are starting to get are their parts back.
Saturday, Vladimir Guerrero returned to the lineup after a week off to rest his ailing right knee. (He’s at DH today).
Today, Chone Figgins is back at third base for the first time since Tuesday. Tomorrow — or Tuesday — Howie Kendrick could be back on the field to test his injured hamstring.
This could mean a lot of questions about the Angels’ playoff roster will be answered in the next few days.
“I think every day we keep getting good news from these guys there’s one less scenario you have to worry about — and that’s good,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “The guys we need to get healthy are getting back in there.”
Today’s lineups follow:
The Angels’ offense came back to life after two games in which they managed a total of three runs on 10 hits and didn’t have a hit with a runner in scoring position.
The back-to-back-to-back home runs by Kendry Morales, Mike Napoli and Brandon Wood made the most noise Thursday but Gary Matthews Jr. quietly had another good game with three hits including a double.
Matthews is making a move recently to salvage his lost season. With Thursday’s three-hit game, he has hit safely in nine of his past 12 games, batting .339 (20 for 59) in that stretch.
Joe Saunders threw seven shutout innings, allowing six hits. Justin Speier pitched a scoreless eighth but Jason Bulger continued to hurt his chances of making the post-season roster by hitting the first batter he faced in the ninth then walking the next.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia replaced him with Jose Arredondo at that point. Bulger has failed to retire any of the seven batters he has faced in his past two outings, walking four, hitting two and giving up a single.
Arredondo walked a batter to load the bases then gave up a run-scoring infield single off the glove of first baseman Kendry Morales to lose the shutout bid. He struck out Travis Buck then gave way to Francisco Rodriguez..
With the bases loaded and the tying run on deck, it was probably the least pressure-packed of Rodriguez’s 66 save opportunities this season (the most in major-league history).
So he supplied his own. Rodriguez walked pinch-hitter Jack Cust to force in a run before getting a forceout that brought another run in. Kurt Suzuki singled in another run to make it a two-run lead before Ryan Sweeney grounded out to end the game.
The Tampa Bay Rays play later tonight (the Boston Red Sox are off). But the Angels’ win Thursday afternoon trimmed their magic number to clinch the best record in the American League to 10 (seven to eliminate the Red Sox from consideration).
Already leading 3-0, the Angels doubled their pleasure with three consecutive home runs in the top of the seventh inning off A’s reliever Keith Foulke.
With one out, Kendry Morales started the fireworks with his second home run in this series. Two pitches later, Mike Napoli added his 17th home run of the season. On the next pitch, Brandon Wood hit his fifth.
The three home runs came in a span of four pitches. It is the first time the Angels have had back-to-back-to-back home runs since the trio of Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Guillen and Jeff DaVanon did it against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 24, 2004.
Angels left-hander Joe Saunders has shut out the A’s on six hits through seven innings.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia isn’t one to let his team dwell on a particular win or loss — but he also isn’t one to let a sloppy inning like the Wednesday’s ninth go.
“We cleaned some stuff up this morning, made sure guys were on the same page,” Scioscia said before today’s game, using his trademark euphemism for calling players on the carpet. “You’re going to have things like that fall through the cracks from time to time. … We’ve got a lot of youth on the field right now.”
The play that stuck in Scioscia’s ample craw from Wednesday was not the game-ending throwing error by Francisco Rodriguez. That was an error that came out of “trying to make a play,” Scioscia said of the wild throw on Cliff Pennington’s “Baltimore chop” off home plate.
The inning was set up by the misplay of Daric Barton’s leadoff single. Centerfielder Gary Matthews Jr. fielded it and short-hopped his throw to second baseman Sean Rodriguez who let it go, thinking shortstop Brandon Wood was backing him up. But Wood wasn’t prepared and the ball hopped past him. Francisco Rodriguez’s back was turned and he wasn’t in position to back up the backup on the play so Barton advanced to second while the ball rolled loose.
“When something like that happens, it’s definitely a teaching moment — especially for the young guys,” Scioscia said.
His right cheek still makes it look like he’s smuggling nuts but Torii Hunter is back in the lineup for the Angels today. Garret Anderson gets the day off against another A’s left-hander.
ANGELS
LF Reggie Willits
RF Gary Matthews Jr.
DH Mark Teixeira
CF Torii Hunter
3B Robb Quinlan
1B Kendry Morales
C Mike Napoli
SS Brandon Wood
2B Sean Rodriguez
LHP Joe Saunders
A’S
CF Rajai Davis
LF Aaron Cunningham
C Kurt Suzuki
DH Emil Brown
RF Chris Denorfia
SS Bobby Crosby
2B Cliff Pennington
3B Jack Hannahan
1B Jeff Baisley
LHP Josh Outman
