| With the hometown crowd on their feet throughout the game, the Los Angeles Angels crack open the champagne as World Series Champions with four pitchers combining on a shutout and a thrilling 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves and get their second overall world championship in the first ever regularly scheduled World Series game in the month of November. After much perusal over which Angel would get the start, Jered Weaver is chosen and he is more than up to the task in a tense pitching duel with John Smoltz. The Braves would not get their first hit of the game until one was out in the 4th inning. The Angels got to Smoltz in the 2nd inning, on a Mike Napoli single, Napoli goes to second on a Smoltz wild pitch, and scores the first run of the game when Howie Kendrick knocks him home on a single. Some Smoltz wildness would cost him again in the 5th inning when he hits Orlando Cabrera and Cabrera scores from first on a Garrett Anderson double for the 2-0 Angels lead. The Braves would mount their only real serious threat of the game in the 6th inning when Weaver began to run a little low in the tank. Willie Harris would walk, but would be caught stealing second. Kelly Johnson singles, and Edgar Renteria walks. Chris Bootcheck comes in at that point and strikes out the red hot Chipper Jones to end the inning as the Braves fail to score. That would pretty much do it for the Braves, as Bootcheck goes the 7th and Darren Oliver the 8th allowing one hit. Renteria leads off the 9th with a double and the meat of the order coming up against Francisco Rodriguez. Rodriguez proceeds to get Chipper on a groundout, strikes out Mark Teixeira, and gets a groundout from Brian McCann to end the game, then the fans go wild and the celebration begins. Quite a few baserunning mistakes for both teams besides the Harris caught stealing, as Chipper is picked off first base by Weaver while Chone Figins and Orlando Cabrera are both picked off first by Smoltz. Smoltz goes the distance for the Braves for the complete game only allowing the two runs, but it is not good enough as he gets his first postseason loss. Not exactly the best game to do it in. As for series MVP, really no obvious choices for batters. This was a pitchers series, as evidenced by the Angels .265 average and the Braves .246. The choice will be John Lackey, as he wins 2 games with an 8 inning, one run performance in game 1 and another one run performance in almost 7 innings in game 4, coming back on three days rest and giving the Angels a much needed win that at the time tied the series 2-2. Now that ain't bad, winning the Cy Young award and World Series MVP honors in the same season! As I said, these are the 7th and 8th different teams in the four SOM World Series that I have had. No one has more than one appearance in a Series. Also, this would be the first World Series to go the full seven games since 2002, which oddly enough the Angels won that one too! Next, on to 2008!!! |
Strat-O-Matic Report
BOXSCORE: 2007 Atlanta Braves At 2007 Los Angeles(AL) Angels 11/1/2007
Braves AB R H RBI AVG Angels AB R H RBI AVG
K.Johnson 2B 4 0 1 0 .243 O.Cabrera SS 3 1 1 0 .307
E.Renteria SS 3 0 2 0 .361 C.Figgins 3B 4 0 1 0 .288
C.Jones 3B 2 0 0 0 .408 G.Anderson LF 4 0 2 1 .273
M.Teixeira 1B 4 0 0 0 .319 V.Guerrero DH 2 0 0 0 .306
B.McCann C 4 0 0 0 .306 C.Kotchman 1B 4 0 0 0 .236
A.Jones CF 3 0 0 0 .206 M.Napoli C 4 1 2 0 .164
S.Thorman DH 3 0 0 0 .125 H.Kendrick 2B 3 0 1 1 .281
J.Francoeur RF 3 0 1 0 .214 R.Willits RF 1 0 0 0 .241
W.Harris LF 1 0 0 0 .250 N.Haynes CF 3 0 0 0 .154
A-M.Diaz PH,LF 1 0 0 0 .154
-- -- -- --- -- -- -- ---
Totals 28 0 4 0 Totals 28 2 7 2
A-Pinch Hit For Harris In 8th Inning
Braves.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 4 0
Angels.......... 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 2 7 0
Braves (10-8) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Smoltz LOSS(3-1) 8 7 2 2 3 7 0 117 3.27
Totals 8 7 2 2 3 7 0
Angels (11-7) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA
J.Weaver* WIN(2-2) 5 2/3 2 0 0 4 4 0 84 2.96
C.Bootcheck HOLD(3rd) 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 3 0 19 4.50
D.Oliver HOLD(3rd) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 11 0.00
F.Rodriguez SAVE(6th) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 19 0.79
Totals 9 4 0 0 4 9 0
ATTENDANCE- 44,650 DATE- Thursday, November 1st 2007 TIME- Night WEATHER- Good
T- 2:23
LEFT ON BASE- Braves: 5 Angels: 7
DOUBLE PLAYS- Braves: 0 Angels: 1
DOUBLES- E.Renteria(3rd), G.Anderson-2(5th), M.Napoli(2nd)
CAUGHT STEALING- W.Harris
SACRIFICE HITS- R.Willits
WALKS- E.Renteria, C.Jones-2, W.Harris, V.Guerrero-2, R.Willits
HIT BY PITCH- O.Cabrera
STRIKE OUTS- K.Johnson-2, C.Jones, M.Teixeira-2, A.Jones-2, S.Thorman,
J.Francoeur, O.Cabrera-2, V.Guerrero, H.Kendrick, N.Haynes-3
GIDP- M.Teixeira
WILD PITCHES- J.Smoltz
WEB GEMS- Bot 6th: Andruw Jones robbed Mike Napoli of an extra base hit.
At Angels Stadium, the Los Angeles(AL) fans witnessed a great pitcher's duel.
Jered Weaver*(2-2) finally bested his Atlanta opposite, John Smoltz(3-1), by
the score of 2 to 0.
Atlanta was unable to claim the lead after Los Angeles(AL) went ahead in the
2nd inning plating an isolated run utilizing 2 base hits. That early run
support was enough for Weaver* and Los Angeles(AL). For the game Los
Angeles(AL) out-hit Atlanta 7 to 4.
Francisco Rodriguez gained credit for his 6th save. Smoltz absorbed the loss.
He gave up 7 hits and 3 walks in 8 innings.
