Shin-Soo Choo drove home Michael Brantley with a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning, and the Cleveland Indians rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Angels on Monday night.
Brantley’s two-out double off Angels closer Fernando Rodney started the final surge for the last-place Indians, who have won three of five on a West Coast road trip.
After Rodney (4-2) hit Asdrubal Cabrera with a pitch, Choo extended his productive trip with the go-ahead hit.
Offenses struggle, and batting coaches get fired. Three — Houston’s Sean Berry, Philadelphia’s Milt Thompson and Seattle’s Alan Cockrell — have been dismissed this season.
As much as the Angels are scuffling — they managed five hits in a 3-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday — do not expect Mickey Hatcher, their hitting coach, to join that list. Not if the manager who hired him in 2000, Mike Scioscia, has the final say.
“All of us are very accountable, but there’s nobody who works harder at this than Mickey,” Scioscia said. “There are only so many circumstances you can control as a hitting coach.
 Angels starter Ervin Santana improved to 15-9 with a 4.02 earned-run average this season after a 7-4 victory at Oakland on Sunday. (Ross Cameron / McClatchy-Tribune) |
One was on the Oakland Coliseum mound Sunday, as Ervin Santana, continuing to build on an outstanding season, gave up two earned runs and six hits in six innings of a 7-4 victory over the Athletics.
Bobby Abreu and Mike Napoli hit two-run home runs in the third inning, Napoli’s 22nd of the season coming on a 3-and-0 pitch from Vin Mazzaro, and the Angels scored more runs Sunday than they did in their previous four games combined (six).
Jered Weaver has been one of the American League’s most effective pitchers since late June, compiling a 3.24 earned run average in his last 14 starts, but the Angels’ right-hander is only 4-7 in those games.
The reason? The Angels’ offense has scored only 26 runs in the 14 games, including one in a 3-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday in which Weaver gave his team another quality start, giving up three runs and six hits in seven innings.
“It is what it is,” said Weaver, who is 11-11 with a 3.14 ERA and a league-leading 205 strikeouts on the season. “I can only go out there and do my job, go out there and battle.”
It’s not easy taking the mound in the first inning knowing one run could beat you–the Angels were shut out in each of the last three games Weaver started before Saturday, and their run in the eighth inning Saturday snapped a string of 31 1/3 innings over five games in which the Angels hadn’t scored with Weaver on the mound–but Manager Mike Scioscia has been impressed with Weaver’s composure.
“These guys have pitched with their backs against a wall for a long time,” Scioscia said. “Jered, as much as anybody, is trying to deal with it and work through it without changing his game plan too much. What you really have to fight is that tendency to put too much pressure on every pitch, to make every pitch perfect. Overall, he’s pitching his game, and that’s really all a pitcher can do.”
The Corona del Mar High football team is off to a good start. The Sea Kings have a 22-7 lead against Savanna at halftime.
Quarterback Mitch Gardner has thrown two touchdown passes to wide receiver Cole Cottrell. Running back Clay Reinhardt has a rushing touchdown.
Corona del Mar High has opened the football season with a win in each of the previous nine years.
The Sea Kings need a win badly after failing to record a victory in their final five games last season.
CdM kicks off the season against Savanna tonight at Newport Harbor High at 7. For live updates of the game, check http://www.twitter.com/DCPenaloza and http://www.theocnow.com throughout the night.
COSTA MESA — It all started in 1999, when friends Clay Peterson and Johnny McCray bought neighboring homes.
While unpacking, Peterson came upon a wooden tennis racquet and they started to hit balls in Peterson’s tennis court.
Then they had an idea.
“Why don’t we have a tournament and have people dress up?” Peterson thought.
The first two names made sense. Jepsen has been one of the Angels’ primary setup men since 2009, and Rodriguez, though a rookie, has emerged this season as a fairly reliable right-hander.
But Walden? The 22-year-old right-hander had been in the big leagues for all of six days at the time, and he was being tabbed as one of the team’s top short relievers?
Newport Beach resident Jake Hall, a junior at JSerra High, is the Lions’ starting quarterback this year.
Hall got a chance for a reunion of sorts Thursday night, as his Lions played host to Newport Harbor in a scrimmage. Hall grew up with several of the current Sailors in the Newport-Mesa Junior All-American Football program. He was on the 2006 Pee-Wee level team that made it to the Super Bowl.
Hall, who threw one touchdown pass against Newport Harbor in the scrimmage, will lead the rising Lions, who won their first Trinity League game in four years last season.
Kent Treptow | Daily Pilot
Coach Jeremy Osso knows his Costa Mesa High team has to begin the football season sometime. The Mustangs have not figured out how to start it off on the winning note under Osso.
Osso could not lead the Mustangs to victory in their season opener for the fifth straight season. Costa Mesa fell at home to Buena Park, 40-17, Thursday night.
In the last five openers, the opposition has outscored Costa Mesa, 246-40.
COSTA MESA — A graduate of Orange Coast College’s culinary arts program won first place this week in a contest in which four top chefs went up against one another to see who could create a chocolate vehicle that actually moved.
Award-winning Las Vegas pastry chef Chris Hanmer, a former resident of Costa Mesa, won $10,000 [...]
Marina High School football players practice Tuesday, Aug. 31 in preparation for the upcoming season.
Ocean View High School players practice Tuesday, Aug. 31 in preparation for the start of the season.
Project Self Sufficiency hosts a back-to-school celebration with free backpacks and school supplies at the Edison Community Center Monday, Aug. 30.
Weston Scott Kruger, a Newport Harbor High School graduate, was sentenced to 25 years to life Tuesday, and will be eligible for parole in 21 years because of credit for time already served.
The defense is planning an appeal based on certain jury instructions, including those to consider that a homicide occurred at the same time [...]
Newport Harbor High incoming senior Tracy Beblie won the 11th annual Safe Passage Summer Junior Open tennis tournament Thursday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, beating Jake Hoeger of Redondo Beach, 6-0, 6-4 in the final.
Beblie had knocked off No. 1-seeded Anthony Lee of Gardena in a semifinal, 6-0, 6-2.
Beblie, who played No. 1 [...]
Oktoberfest at the Old World Village in Huntington Beach will start on Sept. 5 and run through Oct. 31 on Wednesdays through Sundays.
CORONA DEL MAR — A Lynwood man was arrested this morning after police said he got behind the wheel drunk and, from a review of a police account, essentially played bumper cars down a Newport Beach street before coming to a stop on a front lawn.
Joshua Mario Muniz, 24, was arrested on [...]
COSTA MESA — Heather Ellis can’t help but get teary-eyed when talking about how it feels to wait while lawyers and judges argue over the fate of same-sex marriage rights in California.
“I don’t really know how to say it,” Ellis, 38, said. “It’s really odd that we have to go through this.”
Ellis and [...]
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