Who’s hotter than Hellickson? The Ray’s rookie rocked with 10 strikeouts but still took the loss as the Bay-area bats remained flat, save for one. B.J. Upton continued to impress in the 5-1 loss against the LAA – The Team With Too Many Words In Its Name. Upton went long to lead off the home half of the fifth inning, sending an 0-0 pitch into the seats in left field. With the bomb, Upton is hitting a solid .333 to start the year. Sure, when broken down, that percentage is based on going 6-for-18, but with four out of five of the Rays losses coming with one run on four hits – including this 5-1 setback to the Halos – fans need to find things about which to get excited wherever they can.
Hellickson faced off against Angels’ starter Dan Haren; each man started the game off by striking out the side in the first inning. The difference between the two frames was that in between outs 1 and 2 in the top of the first, Hellickson issued a walk to Howie Kendrick, who scored on a double by Bobby Abreu. Hellickson then got Torii Hunter to go down swinging before catching Vernon Wells looking.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.