Angels can’t go the distance against Rockies
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TUCSON -- Eric Young Jr.’s one-out bases-loaded triple capped a five-run ninth-inning rally Saturday, lifting the Colorado Rockies to an 11-10 Cactus League victory and spoiling the Angels final visit to Tuscon.
Major league teams have trained in Tuscon going back to 1947, but the Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks, the only teams still there, are moving to a new facility in the Scottsdale area next year. That will leave 15 teams bunched within 40 miles of one another in greater Phoenix.
For most of the afternoon it looked as the Angels would make that final trip back to Tempe as winners. Juan Rivera and Jeff Mathis, two of the four Angels regulars who made the two-hour drive down Interstate 10, led the offense Saturday with Rivera going 3 for 4 with a homer, a pair of doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored while Mathis scored two runs and drove in two others.
Rivera’s homer, a solo shot in the seventh inning, broke a 6-6 tie and gave him the team lead with nine RBIs this spring. The Angels added to that lead with three runs in the eighth. But right-handers Juan Mateo and Nick Pugliese -- summoned from minor league camp to make the long trip -- couldn’t get the final two outs.
Mateo gave up four runs on three hits and a walk without retiring a batter. Pugliese gave up a hit and got an out before Young, who had doubled an inning inning, cleared the bases with his game-winning triple to the gap in left-center.
Scott Kazmir started for the Angels and went four innings, allowing five hits and three third-inning runs. He struck out three and walked one.
‘I think it’s all feel for me, trying to get a feel for my itches ‘ Kazmir, munching a piece of postgame pizza, said of his spring routine.
‘A lot of good things out there,’ Manager Mike Scioscia said. ‘Kaz, outside of one inning where he had a little trouble getting his slider where it needed to be, I thought he did a terrific job. It was a definite positive. We swung the bats well. It was good to see Juan swing the bat.’
Meanwhile back in Tempe, a group of Angels who stayed behind got in some much-needed work in a camp game. Erick Aybar and Hideki Matsui, whose springs have been slowed by injury, batted first and second in each of the first five innings with Aybar going 0 for 5 and Matsui going hitless in two official trips. He also walked three times.
Reliever Scot Shields, whose 2009 season was cut short by knee surgery after 20 appearances, pitched one inning in Tempe, throwing 11 pitches, eight for strikes. And catcher Mike Napoli threw out his first baserunner of the spring but he also had a throwing error. Opposing runners had stolen 12 bases in as many tries against Napoli before Saturday.
-- Kevin Baxter