During Thursday’s pregame ceremonies, Angels’ Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and infield coach Alfredo Griffin honored Ortiz by presenting a portrait of Big Papi himself by artist Stephen Holland, known for painting portraits of athletes and celebrities.
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Taking a 1-0 lead against the L.A. Angels into the bottom of the ninth inning, Brad Ziegler was trying to close things out for Boston but was in a bases-loaded, one out jam.
The Upper Valley Nighthawks took advantage of the Mountaineers loss, beating the Ocean State Waves 3-2 in Rhode Island last night. He tried to bunt again but missed and struck out. For the third time, he didn’t give up an extra-base hit. As the ball bounced over near the Angels dugout Ji-Man Choi who had pinch run for Albert Pujols raced home with the winning run and the Angels had a thrilling walk-off 2-1 victory. Knowing the speed of Trout at third base, (Ramirez) hurried his throw, and it was errant. “It’s up to us to go out and execute and perform to our abilities”.
To his credit, Ramirez didn’t make any excuses for his error after the game, saying he knows he rushed the throw and “that can’t happen”, but it did, and it’s certainly not a great way to begin an eleven-game west coast road trip after being swept at home by Detroit.
Trout got a good jump on the ball and figured the play at the plate would be close. “I just feel good here”, Porcello said.
“We just gave ourselves a chance at the end of the game”, Trout said.
Until the ninth, Price was the story of the night; his performance should quiet his critics for the moment. He allowed 11 hits in each of his previous two starts, and his season ERA was up to 4.51, so given his $30 million-a-year salary, the natives were getting restless.
Price gave up seven hits, but only one after the fifth inning. They made the risky move to sign Tim Lincecum to a contract and bring him up to the bigs as they were in desperate need of pitchers, and thus far it hasn’t panned out.
“He just had a lot of trouble commanding his fastball and commanding counts”, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Lincecum.
With Price out of the game, the Angels would rally and load the bases with one out. Weaver loudly showed his displeasure at his removal from the game.
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Prior to Thursday’s game vs. the Red Sox, the Angels chose to honor Ortiz with some run-of-the-mill retirement gifts.
