A strange thing happened to me last night while flipping back and forth between the Dodgers/Giants and Angels/Indians games last night on my local stations: I fell asleep!!! I guess the day had me tired or something, but it was only around 9 pm PT when I conked out. Now maybe it was because I felt pretty secure with the 3-1 lead that Chad Billingsley was holding after he retired the Giants in order in the bottom of the sixth inning or that I felt secure in how Jon Lackey was mowing down the Indians while the Halos held a 2-1 lead. Or maybe it was some combination of both.
Regardless, when I woke up (still asleep on the couch) three hours and fifteen minutes later with the games being long over, I soon discovered that neither Billingsley or Lackey had been credited with a win. Closer inspection showed that the Dodgers SS Rafael Furcal had made a critical throwing error on a ground ball in the bottom of the 7th inning after a Barry Bonds single had ended Billingsley's night. The Furcal error ended up giving the Giants four outs in that inning and they took full advantage, putting up three runs! James Loney managed to tie the game at 4 in the top of the 9th for the Dodgers with his second home run of the game, but Jonathan Broxton would give up a walk-off homer to the unheralded Dan Ortmeier to give the Giants an improbable 5-4 win. The loss was a crucial one for the Dodgers as a win would have moved them within 1 1/2 games of the San Diego Padres for the NL Wild Card.
As for the Angels, well better news to report there. Francisco Rodriguez came in to close out things in the ninth and gave up a solo home run to Ryan Garko to tie the game at 2. For K-Rod it was his sixth blown save of the year. The game went extra innings. Scot Shields actually relieved K-Rod with two out in the ninth and pitched a scoreless 10th as well. Chone Figgins, in his first start since he was injured two weeks ago, led off a double to right (his 3rd hit of the game). Orlando Cabrera flew out and then the red-hot Garret Anderson was intentionally walked. G.A. had singled in Figgins in the first inning to extend his consecutive games string of driving in at least one run to 12. The RBI gave him 22 of them over that time. Kendry Morales was then called on to deliver a game winning hit. After an 0-for-4 night in which he had grounded into a double play and left five men on base, Kendry was feeling pretty down on himself... He got redemption though as he lined a single to right to plate Figgins and give the Angels a dramatic 3-2 win! With the victory, the Angels now own a nine game lead over the Seattle Mariners in the AL West and have a magic number of only 14 to clinch the title.
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