Thank God for the Lakers, because no one will care about this game.  The Angels looked like they didn’t care much either.  Ervin Santana followed up John Lackey’s brutal performance with one of his own.  He lasted only 4.2 innings, and allowed six runs on eight hits, one of which left the yard off the bat of Evan Longoria.  The bullpen was just as brutal.  Rich Thompson only needed two-thirds of an inning to give up four earned runs.  He allowed two homers, a solo shot to Dioner Navarro, and a three run blast to Carlos Pena.

On the plus side, it’s not as if they wasted a great offensive performance.  The Angels managed only four hits off of David Price and Grant Balfour.  They didn’t get any off of Randy Choate and Joe Nelson.  Their only run came in the fifth inning on a Torii Hunter RBI single.

Amazingly, Price’s performance wasn’t good enough for the win.  He didn’t last the required five innings, primarily because his six walks and six strikeouts cost him 105 pitches through 4.1 innings.  The Angels walked eight times in all, yet still couldn’t muster more than one run.

Thoughts on the game:

• This team is very frustrating.  Every time you think they’ve turned a corner, they do a 360 and end up right where they started.  A series of good starts leads into a series of bad starts.  Solid offensive games are mirages.  I’m losing faith in their ability to put it together.
• This is the part where I try to look for positives, but I just didn’t see any tonight.  The three guys at the top of the lineup all get on base at nearly a .400 clip, yet they can’t score more than one run.  Again, frustrating.
• At least the Lakers won.

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