Salt Lake at Las Vegas — April 15
 Bartolo Colon congratulated in the dugout after Sunday’s performance. Fellow Dominican Pedro Liriano charted the pitches. |
A much larger turnout from Angels fandom Sunday, most likely to see Bartolo Colon pitch on rehab. I’d guess about a hundred fans sitting behind the Salt Lake dugout on the third base side.
Colon was dominant. The first 51s batter, Tony Abreu, took Bart to 13 pitches before finally taking a walk. But after that, the only batter I can recall hitting hard Colon was Andy LaRoche, who hit a laser to center field but right at Nathan Haynes.
Bartolo’s fastball was consistently in the low 90s, and occasionally mid-90s.
Most of us thought he’d be gone after the 6th inning — the Angels fans behind the dugout gave him a standing ovation — but he came out and pitched the 7th too. So he got a louder standing ovation.
After Jonathon Rouwenhorst pitched the 8th, Chris Resop came in for the 9th. Resop was acquired from Florida during the winter for Kevin Gregg. Resop continued to struggle, giving up two runs on two hits and a walk. His mechanics are flawed, and he didn’t look like he was pitching with confidence, but his velocity got up to 97 MPH. Mechanics can be fixed. You don’t give up early on that kind of arm.
The predicted thunderstorms held off, other than for a stray raindrop or two, but driving home to O.C. it poured between Baker and Victorville. (I really have to wonder about the idiots who drive their SUVs 85 MPH on the freeway swerving in and out of traffic in a wind-driven downpour …)
Those of you who are longtime regulars at www.futureangels.com know about the legendary faceoff on July 15, 2003 between the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and a rehabbing Randy Johnson. Bees broadcaster Steve Klauke said it’s possible there might be a rematch on Wednesday, when Salt Lake is in Tucson for a 12 PM PDT contest. Among the current Bees who were in the lineup that day were Jeff Mathis, Nick Gorneault and Mike Eylward. Dallas McPherson homered off Johnson in that game, but he’s in Tempe on rehab. Randy nicked Dallas with a pitch in his final at-bat, but injuries to one or the other over the years have robbed them of another encounter.
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