What they're saying in Los Angeles

As you can imagine, lots of talk about the decision to not walk Hank Blalock with the score tied and a runner on second with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Here's the Orange County Register story by Bill Plunkett and here's a clip from the Los Angeles Times article: "We gave [an intentional walk to Blalock] a lot of consideration, and of course we thought about who was on deck -- we weighed that a lot," Scioscia said after the Rangers cut the Angels' American League West lead to half a game. "If Justin didn't feel good about the matchup, we would have walked him." Speier has been feeling very good about himself lately, having given up one earned run and six hits in 10 2/3 innings of his previous 12 games, and he had held the left-handed-hitting Blalock to one hit in eight at-bats, striking him out three times. But lefties were also hitting .304 against Speier this season, and Blalock hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and doubled in...