Major League Baseball

In debut, Kazmir shows Angels should win West

Published Sep. 3, 2009 6:06 a.m. ET

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The Angels dropped a series to the third-place Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. They lost, 3-0, less than 24 hours after losing, 2-1. Not a great way to start September.

But Angels fans should feel more confident than ever about the inevitability of their team's sixth postseason berth since 2002, because Wednesday brought two significant developments in the American League West race.

1. The Rangers said All-Star/leader Michael Young, who had started all but three games at third base this year, will miss two or three weeks with a hamstring injury.


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2. Scott Kazmir stumbled early but put together a nice outing in his Angels debut, allowing one earned run in 6 1/3 innings.

Aside from a 10-run outburst Monday, the Angels' offense had a lousy series. Bobby Abreu hasn't done much lately. But the Angels still lead the Rangers by 3½ games after Texas' win Wednesday. They have the best team batting average in the majors. And if they continue pitching like they did this week at Safeco Field, allowing five runs in three games, then Mike Scioscia's guys should clinch the division around Oct. 1.

Which is where Kazmir comes in.

If the Angels acquired Kazmir with the idea that he would probably allow traffic on the bases, throw a lot of pitches and wiggle out of trouble, then that's fine. He did that Wednesday.

In the first inning.

The bases were loaded three hitters into the left-hander's first start as an Angel. But it got better after that. In fact, Kazmir retired the next 18 hitters. He held the Mariners scoreless until the seventh, when he allowed two runs, one of them unearned.

If you like Kazmir, then you probably watched Wednesday's performance (at least from the fourth hitter onward) and saw things that reaffirmed your opinion.

Kazmir will never be accused of pitching economically, and he needed 47 pitches to get through two innings. He threw 106 pitches in all, partially because he wasn't able to put away many hitters early in the count. According to game data on MLB.com, he generated a staggering 39 foul balls and foul tips.

So, he didn't overwhelm too many hitters. But he didn't allow much hard contact, either.

Kazmir's fastball induced five of his eight strikeouts and at times reached 95 miles per hour. His changeup and slider looked good, too.

Of course, the skeptics have plenty of evidence, too. Kazmir's average fastball has been a career-low 90.7 mph this year, according to FanGraphs.com. Wednesday's start was only the seventh time in 21 starts this season that he recorded an out in the seventh inning.

He's surpassed the 200-inning mark only once in his career. And he isn't going to do it this year.

Translation: When Kazmir pitches, the bullpen has to be on alert.

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