perfect and not so much

Dallas Braden threw a perfect game today. And not against some puff-piece lineup either. Tampa Bay is one of the hottest teams in the league with the best record in baseball. Tough for the Rays - they've been at the wrong end of a perfect game for the second time in a row.

Despite the fact that Braden is an Oakland pitcher, I was rooting for him. That whole spat with A-Rod was amusing to me (a bystander), but I took Dallas's side. Even though Dallas may have flipped out unnecessarily over the whole it's-a-unwritten-rule and that-is-my-mound-! thing, I thought A-rod was the one that looked like the jerk. A-rod could've (and should've!) taken the high road and said something along the lines of "I didn't mean any disrespect," and "I've never heard of that unwritten rule." Instead, A-rod took a dig at him, saying that he didn't expect to be called out by someone with "a handful of wins." That's just arrogant and disrespectful. It ended up making the whole incident more than it was. Even worse, in response to Dallas's interview with a reporter, A-rod couldn't let go of his ego and stoked the fire even more with his comment on not wanting to extend his "15 minutes of fame."

Well now Dallas Braden has much more than 15 minutes of fame as A-rod's crazy nemesis. Congrats to Dallas, now he's written in the history of baseball.

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Now onto Angels baseball.

Yesterday the Angels pretty much were asking the M's to take the game. Thankfully, the M's are such a mess that they didn't know how to. Saunders took some positive steps forward, even though he unravelled in the end against a pitiful lineup. Same with the bullpen, as each reliever seemed to teeter on the brink of fail. Fuentes provided a surprising lockdown inning, striking out two and giving up no baserunners. With the new mustache, I can't help but think he looks like Mario, even though he's Latino, not Italian. Maybe he'll start throwing some fireballs. Frandsen made a great Angels debut, going 3-4 with some nice stops at 3rd and some high throws. Nothing much to note, except it didn't look like the Angels built upon the previous win. I wouldn't say they regressed - it took some guts to win that game in extras when you know that Stokes and Fuentes were all that was left in the bullpen. I guess I was disappointed that they didn't take off right off the bat. I guess it's gonna take some time for the Angels to turn on the switch.

Today's play didn't really help. Misplays abound, horrible relief, and silent bats. Silver lining was the terrific 3.2 innings Ervin pitched before losing focus and imploding. That and the terrific defensive plays by Reggie and Rivera in the outfield to get two assists. Also, at least there's the solstice in knowing that today was probably one of the worse lineups Sosh could trot out. Q as DH!?! I'd think letting Ryan play the outfield with Abreu as the DH would be better. But hey, I'm just a blogger, maybe Sosh was counting on Q's communion with pink bats...

Tomorrow's another day and another game. We'll see how the Halos respond to losing and returning back home.