Juan Rivera

s closer Francisco Rodriguez to win 5-4 on Wednesday.  With the score tied 2-2 in the seventh, Juan Rivera homered to left center, scoring Torii Hunter, to take a 4-2 lead.  The Los Angeles bullpen held off Texas until the ninth and manager Mike Scioscia brought in K-Rod, who is having a fantastic season.  Ramon Vazquez led off with a walk, but Rodriguez struck out Ian Kinsler and got Frank Catalanotto to ground out, moving Vazquez to second with two outs.  The red-hot Michael Young stepped up to the plate and singled to left, scoring Vazquez to make it 4-3.  K-Rod fell behind Josh Hamilton 3-1, but threw an unexpected curveball on the fifth pitch of the at-bat.  Hamilton must have been ready for it because he blasted it into the right field stands to win the game 5-4 in walk-off fashion.  It was Hamilton's 20th home run of the year, and he leads the majors with 91 RBI.  The blown save was only K-Rod's third of the season, and he rebounded the next day to pick up his major league-leading 36th save of the year.

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endrick (who will both be 25 this season) can develop into the hitters they are expected to be, and Juan Rivera can return to the form he showed before missing nearly all of last season due to an injury, the Angels offense instantly boasts more pop than they demonstrated last year.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: American League West"