MVN - Most Valuable Network

A year after power outage, Angels homer their way to July success

What a difference a year makes.

After crushing the Yankees with three three-run home runs on Thursday night, the Angels finished July with 36 home runs. In the 25 games the Halos played in July, there were only four games where the team did not hit a home run.

Now compare this with the Angels of July 2007.

Last year, the Angels hit only 10 home runs during the entire month of July. In the team’s 24 games in July 2007, the team hit home runs in a total of only five games. They had 19 games without a home run including a stretch where the team went homer-free for 14 games in a row.

Now don’t get me wrong – the Angels are still a team built on pitching, defense, stealing bases, pressuring other teams, going from first to third and putting the ball in play.

However, the home runs certainly don’t hurt.

The Angels’ record in both Julys also was mirrored in the increased home run total. In July 2007 – the weak-hitting month – the Angels went 12-12.

In July 2008 – the Barry Bonds-inspired month – the Angels went 19-6.

The Angels’ home run surge was led by Torii Hunter who is starting to earn that fat contract – he hit nine of his 18 home runs in July.

He was not the only Angel who had a multiple home run July – several Angels hit three or more home runs including Garret Anderson, Howie Kendrick, Juan Rivera and Vladimir Guererro. Jeff Mathis homered in back-to-back games.

This is not your 2007 Angels – especially with the addition of Mark Teixeira this week.

Perhaps this group might best be described as Torii Hunter described them after Thursday’s win.

“We’re Hyenas,” Hunter told the Associated Press. “We take advantage of the weak link. You make a mistake and we’re gone.”

And in July, the Angels certainly made a lot of balls get gone.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.