Bleacher Report - Articles by Joey Kaufman

Post-Game Report: Angels vs. Red Sox - ALDS Game Four

Joey Kaufman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:56:26 -0400

Well… at least the regular season was something to remember.

The Angels were once again terrorized by horribly un-clutch hitting and defensive miscues on Monday night, and even with a late-inning comeback, it wasn’t enough to topple the Boston Red Sox, and the Los Angeles Angels lost Game Four of the ALDS 3-2.

John Lackey looked like a true ace on Monday, keeping his team in the game all night by going seven innings and giving up just two runs to Boston.

The Halos once again could not produce a run to save their lives, leaving a total of 10 men on base. Garret Anderson, who struggled out of the two-hole all series, left the most men on base (three) in the game. If one thing is clear out of this series, it’s this: it’s time for the Angels to change their offensive mindset.

As previously stated, John Lackey pitched well enough to get the win, and was hurt by defensive miscues by Chone Figgins, Erick Aybar and Howie Kendrick. Though John wasn’t overpowering tonight, he hit the corners and made the big pitches when he needed them.

Scot Shields pitched the 8th and 9th innings, and gave up a walk-off single to Jed Lowrie, after giving up a lead-off double to newly crowned Angel-killer Jason Bay.

The most glaring error of the night for the Angels came in the top of the 9th inning. After a lead-off double by Kendry Morales and a sacrifice bunt to get pinch-runner Reggie Willits over to third, Erick Aybar came to the plate and missed the bunt on an attempted squeeze play. Reggie Willits was eventually run down by catcher Jason Varitek, essentially sealing the victory for the Red Sox.

Here are tonight’s best…

Top Three Angels Performers:

1) Torii Hunter went 1-4 on the night, but came through with two outs in the 8th, singling and tying up the score at 2.

2) John Lackey did not deserve the no-decision tonight after the way he pitched. Lackey went seven strong innings, giving up just two runs to a very powerful Red Sox offense, keeping his team in the game.

3) Lead-off man Chone Figgins did his best to get the offense going tonight, going 2-4 with two singles.

Jeff Weaver of the Game:

Mike Scioscia gets the Jeff Weaver tonight. Calling a squeeze play with one out in the top of the 9th inning was overmanaging, and it cost the Angels the win.

Play of the Game:

With two outs and runners on second and third in the 8th inning, Torii Hunter fought off pitch after pitch before singling to right field and driving in the game-tying runs.

What to look for next:

The Los Angeles Angels’ season is now over, and they have a lot of personnel decisions to make. This should make for one very interesting offseason.

Another Reason Why I Like Torii Hunter

Joey Kaufman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:35:41 -0400

With contract holdouts, touchdown celebrations, and self-promoting gimics, there are plenty of reasons to despise the modern athlete and accuse them of being arrogant individuals. It’s quite easy to find examples to prove this argument, but it may be a little tougher to find instances of professional athletes being a little more team oriented.

However, I’ve been impressed with the newest Angel, Torii Hunter, who has said all the right things and has been the consummate team player so far as a member of the Halos. In response to last night’s bloop single that coast the Angels three runs, here is what Mr. Hunter had to say:

Let’s get the play that cost us three runs out of the way first. It was my fault; put it all on me. I should have gotten there, called off Howie Kendrick and caught that ball. We haven’t had a single ball fall like that, in that spot, all season—and it happens in a game we have to win. But you’ve got to move on, let it go. That’s what I told Howie between innings. It was in a tough spot. I was shading Jacoby Ellsbury toward left-center, and Howie had a long way to go. But it’s my turf out there, and I should have made the play.

Finally, a guy takes accountability. Nice job Torii.

Teddy Purcell Hits a Bump in His Road to the Los Angeles Kings

Joey Kaufman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:01:25 -0400

The Kings have finally pared down the roster to a manageable number.

Out of everyone that’s been assigned to Manchester or their respective junior teams, the most surprising is that Teddy Purcell was sent down. He came to training camp looking like he bulked up—which he did, weighing in at 202 pounds.

I thought he had a solid showing. I never once thought he’d be assigned to Manchester before the season began. I’m not sure what he did exactly to warrant him being assigned, but I have a feeling it wasn’t just him.

If you couple Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds' fantastic camps with Purcell’s non-flashy performance, that might have been the kicker to give the former two a chance to prove themselves with some real NHL games. If they don’t last, they can easily be sent down and Purcell can be brought back up. If Patrick O’Sullivan and the Kings can come to terms, one of those two kids can also be sent down.

Quote from Terry Murray, courtesy of Inside the Kings: “With some guys, like Purcell, I tried to be specific in things I saw, and things I’d like to see a big focus on.”

Hmm, pretty vague.

Anyway, I had a preview up and running for later this week, but now that Purcell isn’t on the roster, I’m going to have to tweak it a bit. Stay tuned for another Kings World Podcast episode that you can grab up Wednesday morning, and a season preview in a few days. I originally wasn’t going to do one, but what the hell.

SoCal WCC Weekly Roundup (Oct. 6)

Joey Kaufman — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:07:01 -0400

Football

San Diego kept alive its home winning streak (27 games), the longest such streak in Division I, with yet another blowout over a league opponent.

The 5-0 Toreros (PFL 3-0) wiped out Valparaiso 42-14 on the strength of a nearly perfect game by quarterback Sebastian Trujillo, who was 20-25 for 295 yards and three touchdowns. John Matthews caught seven balls for 144 yards and two scores to extend his career touchdown record.

Valpo got on the board first with a touchdown late in the first quarter, and USD responded just over two minutes later. After USD took the lead late in the half, Valpo evened it up just before the break at 14-14. But the second half belonged to USD, which scored four unanswered touchdowns to the delight of the Homecoming crowd.

USD will try to remain perfect this weekend when Morehead State comes to San Diego for another Pioneer League battle.

Men’s Soccer

It is league season again as all seven WCC teams kicked off their conference schedules over the weekend.

The Toreros got off on the right foot, traveling to Moraga, where they beat the home standing St. Mary’s Gaels 1-0. The goal came on a sixth minute penalty kick by USD’s Eddie Ahman, and the teams shut one another down for the remainder of the game.

The win was USD’s first of the season, but the team did post ties against two top 10 schools.

On Sunday the Loyola Marymount Lions also visited the Gaels, but St. Mary’s was too much for LMU and won 2-1 thanks to a goal by Emmanuel Sarabia with just 58 seconds left in regulation. The week was not a total loss for the Lions, who earned a 2-1 overtime win over Bakersfield on Thursday.

Women’s Soccer

Both Pepperdine and No. 21 San Diego traveled to No. 4 UCLA last weekend, and neither was happy with the result. The Bruins knocked off the crosstown rival Waves 1-0 on Friday and then jumped all over the Toreros, winning 3-0.

LMU had a slightly better weekend, winning 1-0 at Northridge on Friday and then holding San Diego State to a scoreless tie in San Diego on Sunday.

San Diego, LMU, and Pepperdine will all open their conference schedules this week, with the trio sitting in second, fourth, and seventh respectively in the overall standings.

Women’s Volleyball

The WCC opened its regular season last weekend, with the conference going 71-34 against non-conference opponents overall in the preseason. LMU got off to a rough start, traveling to the Bay Area and losing 3-1 to No. 23 Santa Clara on Thursday, and then falling 3-1 to No. 35 St. Mary’s on Sunday.

No. 15 Pepperdine fared slightly better on the same road trip, going the distance against both schools, but came away with a 3-2 loss at Santa Clara and a 3-2 win at St. Mary’s. No. 16 San Diego got to open their WCC schedule at home and handled Gonzaga (3-0) and Portland (3-1) with ease.

Kings-Ducks: Los Angeles Falls in Shootout

Joey Kaufman — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:25:13 -0400

The Kings faced off against the Ducks last night for the first time this preseason, and, I must say, it was crappy.

The defensive pairings were subpar and the forwards couldn’t land their passes to make decent rushes out of their own zone. There were noticeably more people attending this game compared to the first preseason game held at Staples, which meant that more people were subjected to the horrible defense of the Kings.

Let’s actually start with the forwards. Oscar Moller and Matt Moulson swapped ice time with each other to be on the top line with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar throughout the entire game.

It was nice to see Moller getting big minutes and with the top two skaters, but there were times when he was just out of position. He obviously wasn’t making an obscene amount of blatant errors, but it was apparent that he was on a tryout with the top offensive pairing.

There weren’t as many penalties in this game compared to Frozen Fury, so it didn’t seem like a night solely devoted to specialty teams. That’s not to say the reffing was fantastic or anything—in fact, it was straight up horrendous.

I thought the checking of Kyle Calder headfirst into the boards was grounds for a penalty, but the refs thought otherwise.
I thought the times the Ducks interfered with Jason LaBarbera while he was still in the blue paint were grounds for multiple penalties, but the refs didn’t think that was a big deal.
I thought the holding penalty against Kopi during the OT frame was the biggest piece of nonsense, but apparently those are supposed to be called.

Okay I will preface this by saying I don’t play hockey on a daily basis, so I probably don’t have the authority to critique the refs, but...honestly?

Since this game wasn’t televised, I’ll lay the scene out. It’s overtime, and the Kings are on the power play. Some Duck grabs a hold of Kopi’s stick and holds it across his midsection. Kopi notices this and puts his left arm up in the air to show that he’s not hooking or holding the Duck. The latter then proceeds to try and get himself tangled up in Kopi’s stick somehow and then magically trips and falls. Whistle blows and Kopi is sent off the ice for holding.

Really?

There is then a minute of three-on-three skating, which creates so much ice that it’s ridiculous. But just like in the regulation periods, the Ducks spend most of their time in the Kings’ zone.

I am baffled as to how the Kings just couldn’t get anything going into the offensive zone. Sometimes they couldn’t even get into the neutral zone—but when they did, the Ducks blocked passes and shut them down around their blue line. The only way the Kings could really create chances was if they played the dump-and-chase card. I hate the Ducks so much.

The defense needs work. I shouldn’t have been too hard on the guys, since both Jack Johnson and Tom Preissing sat up in the press box. I really think that one or the other should have dressed for the game, since having both players out created a weaker defense.

In Jack, we could have had a physical puck mover out there, or a positionally-sound veteran D-man in Preissing. Too bad we had neither player and had to resort to putting two 18-year-old D-men on the PK at times. Pretty scary stuff.

There were also some ridiculously huge defensive breakdowns—especially in the first period. Davis Drewiskie, wow. I can’t really describe this one play that almost resulted in a breakaway for the Ducks, but he did get better as the game went along, thank god.

Barbs was in net for the entire 65 minutes and the shootout. I thought he looked okay, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t nervous as all hell whenever the Ducks got a shot on.

For some reason I was-super stressed out over this game. I know it’s just a preseason game and it’s not worth any points, but, dammit, I hate losing to Anaheim. Although if this were a regular-season game and you asked me if the Kings deserved the point for the shootout loss, I would have said, “hell no.”

The only real positive for me was that Moulson scored the lone goal for the Kings. He received the pass while standing with his back to the net to the right of the goal mouth. Since he’s a lefthanded shot, all he did was pivot to his right and stuffed the puck into Jonas Hiller.

Other than that, the game was pretty bad.