Angelblog

John Lackey has been activated for tonight’s game to make his first start of the season after being out for a strained triceps. The addition of Lackey forced Kendry Morales to be optioned to Salt Lake.

All eyes will be on Lackey, who was a top candidate for last year’s Cy Young Award with 19 wins and a 3.01 ERA. Lackey has made three starts at Class A Rancho Cucamongo and an extended spring training start last Friday. Lackey is 3-4 lifetime in nine starts against the White Sox.

The White Sox have Jose Contreras starting, who is 3-3 with a 3.66 ERA. He allowed just one run in his last outing and is 4-3 lifetime against the Angels.

The Angels allowed just three White Sox hits in the 2-0 shutout to make it two straight wins.

The teams were tied at 0’s until the eighth when the Angels rallied for two runs. Torri Hunter and Garrett Anderson both singled and scored off a Mike Napoli sacfly and a Robb Quinlan RBI single. Quinlan and Anderson both went 2 for 4. Macier Izturis was activated from the DL and was used as a pinch runner in the seventh, though he will start the game tonight at second.

Jered Weaver came off his worst outing of the season and ended up having his best of the season. Weaver went seven scoreless innings, giving up just one hit in the fifth inning and fanning six. His near perfect performance wasn’t enough to earn a win, though, as he left with a scoreless game after seven to earn the no-decision. Scott Shields pitched the eighth and earned the win after the Angels got on the board in the bottom half of the inning. Rodriguez allowed a double in the ninth but struck out Orlando Cabrera and Jermaine Dye for the last two outs of the game for his sixteenth save.

Weaver wasn’t rewarded with the win but lowers his ERA from 5.59 to 4.86.

The win also places the Angels a half game up on the A’s.

The Angels stopped their losing streak at four with a 10-7 win over the White Sox on Monday.

The White Sox got on the board first with three in the second, but the Angels put up two of their own in the same inning. They added eight more, four in each the fifth and sixth innings, to make it ten runs on the night. Vlad finally heated up for the night, going 2 for 5 with a three-run homer and another RBI single. His three-run shot in the fifth put the Angels up for good at 5-4. Garrett Anderson also went 3 for 4 with a triple and an RBI. Gary Matthews, Jr., Erick Aybar, and Sean Rodriguez all had two hits apiece on the night.

The Angels’ ten runs on fourteen hits was enough run support to give Nick Adenhart his first MLB victory. Adenhart went 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on nine hits. Adenhart’s reward for the victory was being moved back down to Triple A, though that roster move is necessary to make room for John Lackey, who will return later this week. The open roster spot for now, though, makes room for Jose Arredondo, a right hand reliever from Salt Lake. Chris Bootcheck came in for 1 2/3 and earned the hold despite giving up two runs and three hits. Rodriquez threw the ninth to earn his 15th save of the season.

The Angels go to make it two straight at 7:05. Jered Weaver will go for his third win to snap a two-game losing streak.  The White Sox have John Danks starting for his first career outing against the Angels. Danks is 3-3 with a 3.18 ERA this season.

The Angels are back home, starting a four game series tonight with the White Sox at 7:05.

The Angels hope to turn around their four game losing skid after being swept by the Rays in Tampa Bay. The White Sox have won three of their last four, and stand one game out of first in the AL Central. The Angels have Nick Adenhart starting for just his third MLB career start. He got two no decisions in his previous two starts, but did give up three runs to Kansas City last Tuesday before being pulled in the fifth.

The White Sox will start Mark Buehrle, who is 1-4 on the season with an identical career record against the Angels. Buehrle is on a losing skid, going 0-4 with a 4.54 ERA in his last five starts.

The Angels were swept at home for the first time this season by the Rays, who shutout the Angels 2-0 on Saturday and an 8-5 game on Sunday.

Joe Saunders should have had his seventh win of the season, giving up just one run on four hits through six innings on Saturday. He saw no run support, though, to get dealt his first loss of the season. The Angels were held to three hits by Rays starter Scott Kazmir, a single by Vlad and doubles by Erick Aybar and Gary Matthews, Jr.

The only mistake made by Saunders was in the first when he allowed one run to score after loading the bases. His next five innings were near perfect, but he was pulled after six while trailing 1-0. Darren Oliver threw 1 2/3 and gave up a run in the eighth.

The offense heated up a little bit on Sunday, but the Angels five runs wasn’t enough to match the Ray’s eight. Sunday’s loss is the Angels’ fourth straight, three by the Rays, who swept the series.

The Rays scored three in the first but the Angels answered back in the third with three runs of their own, all on RBI singles by Vlad, Garrett Anderson, and Torii Hunter. Anderson and Hunter each had 2 RBI, and Vlad went 2 for 4 with an RBI. The Angels had a 5-4 lead going into the sixth, but the Rays rallied for four runs to make it eight for the win.

Ervin Santana missed out on his potential seventh win for most in the AL, though he wasn’t tagged for the loss and remains unbeaten. He allowed five runs on a season-high nine hits through 5 2/3 innings, though he did have seven strikeouts. Santana left in the sixth with a 5-4 lead, but Justin Speier came in to give up four runs that inning to hand Santana the no-decision. Speier came in with two outs and one on, but gave up a double and three-run shot to Carl Crawford to earn the blown save and loss. Speier remains winless at 0-3 with a ballooned 6.00 ERA.

The Angels added to their losing woes after Saturday’s game, placing Chone Figgins on the 15-day DL for his strained hamstring.

The Angels were shut out by the Rays and starter James Shields, who allowed just one hit, with eight strikeouts, in the 2-0 Rays win.

The only hit the Angels could muster was a Brandon Wood single in the third. The only other mistake Shields made was hitting Erick Aybar with a pitch. Aybar had to be taken out of the game and is listed as day-to-day, but he may be out for the weekend which could mean a roster transaction to bring someone up to replace him. Casey Kotchman was back in the lineup after missing Wednesday’s game from a groin strain on Tuesday.

Jon Garland matched Shields’ shutout through eight innings. Garland gave up just four hits, while walking three and striking out two. This was Garland’s first scoreless outing of the season, but he left with the game at 0’s for the no-decision. Justin Speier came to throw the ninth and took the loss after giving up a two-run walkoff homerun to Evan Longoria. This gives Speier his second loss of the season.

The Angels and Rays go again at 4:10pm. Joe Saunders will try and stretch his perfect record to 7-0, which would put him atop the AL for most wins. The Rays will start LHP Scott Kazmir, who is just 0-1 in two starts this year after starting the season on the DL.

The Angels finish off their road trip in Tampa Bay, facing the second place Rays tonight at 4:10. A series win will be their sixth consecutive road series win of the season.

Jon Garland will make the start to go for his fifth win of the season. He has a 5-1 career record against the Rays, going 3-0 with a 2.62 ERA at Tropicana Field. Garland is fresh off a win of Baltimore, where he gave up just three hits in eight strong innings. The Rays will start James Shields, who stands at 3-2 with a 3.80 ERA. Shields is coming off a loss on Saturday against Boston, giving up seven runs on ten hits in 3 2/3.

The Angels will be seeing some familiar faces in the series with the Rays. Troy Percival, the Angels closer in their most recent World Championship team, is now with the Rays. Mike Scioscia also managed with Joe Maddon as bench coach for six years in Anaheim. Maddon is now in his third year in managing the Rays, who have shown that they can be as good in the AL East as the Red Sox and Yankees.

Updates:

Howie Kendrick’s return has been pushed back yet again. He is still feeling soreness in his hamstring, so will likely sit out this entire series and return with the team at home after this weekend.

John Lackey is scheduled to make his fourth and final rehab start today in Tempe. He should be activated by next week, with a possible season debut during the week’s series with the White Sox.

Jered Weaver gave up eight of the Royal’s nine runs in a 9-4 Angels loss, their first in five games.

The Angels scored one in the first inning off an RBI single by Vlad, but the Royals answered back in the bottom half to tie it at 1-1. That one Angel run was their only until the seventh when Mike Napoli hit a two-run homerun, which gives him a team-leading eight homeruns. Garrett Anderson also homered in the ninth, but that fourth run wasn’t enough for the nine that the Royals had put up.

Jered Weaver gave up eight runs on ten hits (six being extra-base) over 3 1/3 to the Royals, who entered the game in last place in the AL in runs scored, homeruns, total bases, and slugging percentage. Five of the Royals runs given up by Weaver were from homeruns by David DeJesus and Alex Gordon. Weaver was pulled after giving up Gordon’s two-run shot in the fourth. Weaver’s ERA now stands at 5.59 to match a 2-5 record, which ties for most losses in the AL. Chris Bootcheck relieved for 2 2/3, giving up one run on three hits. Darren O’Day also threw for two innings, giving up one hit.

The Angels are off today before continuing their road trip to Tampa Bay.

The Angels made it four straight last night by beating the Royals 5-3.

The Angels were down by three going into the fourth, but a 3-run Garrett Anderson homerun tied it 3-all. The Angels took the lead in the fifth with an RBI single by Anderson and added an insurance run in the seventh with another Anderson RBI single. Anderson went 3 for 5 and knocked in all of the Angel’s runs for the night. Vlad Guerrero looked to be getting back in the swing of things, going 2 for 4 with a double, triple, and two runs scored. The offense had a total of 15 hits on the night.

Nick Adenhart made his second start in the Majors, but still remains winless as he earned the no-decision. Adenhart went 4 1/3, giving up three runs on six hits with five walks. Darren Oliver came in to pitch a perfect 1 2/3 in relief of Adenhart to earn the win. Speier and Shields each threw an inning to earn holds before Rodriguez had another 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his 14th save of the season, which leads the Majors.

The Angels go for the sweep tonight at 5:10. Jered Weaver will go for his third win after coming off a loss to the Orioles, where he went seven innings with a season-high six strikeouts. Weaver is 2-2 lifetime with a 1.69 ERA against the Royals. Zach Greinke will start for the Royals. Greinke is 3-1 this season and 0-2 lifetime with a 8.49 ERA against the Angels. Greinke does hold the second best ERA in the AL, at 1.47.

The Angels look to hold their league-leading stats, which includes a .291 BA, 5.4 runs per game average, and most victories (tied with three teams at 22).

The Angels are fresh off a shutout win of the Royals last night with the help of Ervin Santana, and look to take the series and make it their fourth straight win.

Nick Adenhart will make his second MLB start for the Angels. In his first start, Adenhart was roughed up for five runs and five walks in just two innings. He is returning with a full-term’s rest now, and debut-jitters out of the way, so we should see Adenhart with more command to make it past at least four or five innings.

The Royals will start Brian Bannister, who is 3-3 with a 4.04 ERA, though he has been roughed up of late after starting the season 3-0. The start will be Bannister’s first against the Angels.

Ervin Santana added another win to his perfect record with a 4-0 Angels win over the Royals.

Santana threw a complete game, his first of the season and just second of his career. He gave up just four hits with no walks and a season-high nine strikeouts. Santana joins teammate Joe Saunders in the 6-0 club; he also is just the fourth (Saunders the third) Angels’ pitcher to start the season 6-0 or better. Santana was also backed up by some outstanding defense, including a diving catch by Torii Hunter and a runner thrown out trying to steal second by Jeff Mathis.

The game remained scoreless for eight full innings with a pitchers duel between Santana and Royals starter Brett Tomko, who left after seven for the no-decision. The Angels bats finally came alive in the top of the ninth against Royals pitcher Ramon Ramirez, who earned the loss. Erick Aybar led off the inning with a triple and scored on an RBI single by Casey Kotchman. Garrett Anderson and Brandon Wood then hit back-to-back homers, Anderson’s a two-run shot and Wood’s a solo.

The win puts the Angels 1 1/2 games above the A’s, who host Baltimore tonight.

The Angels almost had to add a third second baseman to the DL this week. But despite Chone Figgin’s strained hamstring after sliding home in Saturday’s game, he will avoid the DL. Figgins took Sunday off and Sean Rodriquez, who was just recalled yesterday, will make the start for Figgins today. He should be healthy enough by the beginning of this weekend’s Astros series to play again.

The Angels begin their road trip in Kansas City, facing the Royals with a 5:10pm start.

Ervin Santana will look to add to his perfect 5-0 record. A win on Monday will make his win total just one game less than his total from the entire season last year. Santana has five career starts against KC, posting a 1-2 record with a 6.04 ERA. The Royals will start Brett Tomko, who has been roughed up for a 6.26 ERA and just one win this season.

Dustin Moseley won’t be available, he was placed on the 15-day DL for stiffness in his forearm. The Angels recalled second baseman Sean Rodriguez to take Moseley’s spot. Rodriguez has just one MLB game in his career, this past April 19, and went 1 for 4 in place of the injured Howie Kendrick. Kendrick should be making his rehab start soon with Rancho Cucamongo, after being out since April 18.

The Angels lost to the Orioles on Friday, but came back for two wins to take the series.

Friday was a 4-3 loss at the expense of Jered Weaver. Weaver struck out six through seven innings, but gave up four runs on six hits to get the loss.

The Angels were down 2-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, and cut the Orioles lead to one when Torii Hunter, who had three hits on the night, scored after being knocked in by an Erick Aybar fielder’s choice. The Angels then loaded the bases before Reggie Willits popped out to end the game.

Saturday’s game was another close one, but the Angels came out on top with a 3-1 victory.

Jon Garland earned the win, giving up just three hits with one run in his eight innings of work. Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to get his 12th save.

Baltimore scored one in the second and the Angels didn’t answer back until they scored two in the sixth with a Reggie Willits RBI single and Gary Matthews, Jr. sacfly. The offense added an insurance run in the eighth when Chone Figgins scored off a fielder’s choice. The struggling Vlad was given the day off.

The Angels made it two straight today with a 6-5 win.

The Orioles scored two in the first, but the Angels quickly took the lead in the same inning to make it 4-2. Gary Matthews, Jr. started in place of Chone Figgins, who has a strained hamstring after sliding home in last night’s game. Matthews led off the first with a homerun and walked three times. Torii Hunter had a three-run shot in the first to give the Angels the lead. Robb Quinlan also had a homer in the second to add two more runs. Vlad went 1 for 4 to snap an 0 for 15 streak.

Joe Saunders keeps his perfect record, moving to six victories. He did give up 12 hits and four runs, but the run support allowed him to earn the win. O’Day, Oliver, Speier, and Shields all came out of the pen to earn holds. Rodriguez retired 3 of 4 in the ninth to earn his 13th save.

The win gives the Angels their 20th win of the season to stay one game above the A’s in the division.

The Angels host the Orioles tonight at 7:05 to close out their homestand. This is the first Angels-Orioles matchup this season, and the Orioles have been quite the surprise in the AL, just one game behind first in the East.

Jered Weaver will get the start against RHP Jeremy Gutherie. Weaver stands at 2-3 with a 4.21 ERA, and is 2-0 career against the Orioles. Gutherie is winless this season and winless in two starts against the Angels.

Updates:

Maicer Izturis was placed on the 15 day DL, due to a lower back strain suffered in Sunday’s game in Detroit. The move made room for Nick Adenhart, who started last night and will start again on Tuesday.

Infielder Matt Brown was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake, and outfielder Reggie Willis was recalled. Willis should see some playing time in the outfield, likely giving the slumping Vlad Guerrero a rest.

Second baseman Howie Kendrick was expected to have a rehab assignment this weekend. The rehab assignment has been postponed for at least a few days as Kendrick continues work outs and evaluations.

Kelvim Escobar was also moved from the 15 to 60 day DL. He is still continuing his light throwing sessions and strengthening program.

The Angels scored 8 runs in effort to take the series, but that was no match for the 15 runs that the A’s put up.

Oakland took the lead in the second with 4 runs, but the Angels answered back in the bottom of the inning to make it a 5-4 lead, though all 5 runs were unearned due to a Jack Cust error when he dropped Garrett Anderson’s popup with two outs. Robb Quinlan and Mike Napoli got on with singles before Erick Aybar got his first homerun to tie the game at 4. Chone Figgins reached based then scored the fifth run off an RBI-single by Gary Matthews, Jr. Oakland then added two more before Napoli tied it in the sixth with a solo homerun. The Angels rallied for two runs in the ninth, but the damage had been done and the Angels took a 15-8 loss.

Nick Adenhart made his MLB debut, though pitching on just three days rest from Triple-A Salt Lake. The nerves and short days’ rest may have been reason why he could only go two innings, giving up five runs, three hits, and five walks. The loss was handed to Dustin Moseley, new to the bullpen, who gave up five more runs on seven hits in two innings. Darren O’Day also gave up four more runs to the A’s. Chris Bootcheck pitch 3 1/3, giving up six hits but only one run to hold the A’s to 15 runs.

Despite Adenhart’s rocky performance, Mike Scioscia has announced that Adenhart will start on Tuesday in Kansas City. He’ll have another chance to prove he’s as good as his Triple-A numbers reveal.

The loss puts the Angels and A’s in another first place tie in the AL West, both at 18-12.

The All-Star Game isn’t until July 15 in New York, but online voting has already begun.

Vladimir Guerrero is always a League-wide fan favorite for the outfield. Sharing the outfield ballot with Guerrero is Torii Hunter and Gary Matthews Jr. That leaves Garrett Anderson listed as DH on the ballot. Guerrero, Matthews, and Anderson have shared the outfield and DH roles all season, but low numbers for the DH’s this year-including just a .163 BA-is troubling the Angels batting lineup, and may affect the fans’ votes.

Other Angels on the ballot: Casey Kotchman at first, Howie Kendrick at second, Maicer Izturis at short, Chone Figgins at third, and Mike Napoli at catcher. You could say that shortstop Erick Aybar got snubbed from being on the ballot, after performing well all season in place of the injured Kendrick.

The Angels look for the series win against the A’s tonight at 7:05.

The Angels have called up 21-year-old right hander Nick Adenhart for the start. Adenhart will be pitching on three days rest to make his Major League debut. He is 4-0 with a microscopic 0.87 ERA in his five starts with Triple-A Salt Lake. Adenhart has a varied combo of a fastball, curve and changeup, but does lack some control, with 15 walks compared to 19 strikeouts in his 31 innings of work.

The A’s will start RHP Justin Duchscherer, who is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA this season. Duchscherer has a career 5-0 record with a 1.21 ERA against the Angels, though most appearences were as a reliever.

An Angels win will keep them alone atop the AL West. They stand with an 18-11 record, the best in the AL.

The Angels got their second straight win against the A’s for a 6-1 win and first place position in the AL West.

The offense was led by Casey Kotchman, who gave the Angels a 2-0 lead in the second with a 2-RBI double. Kotchman ended up 3 for 4 with 3 RBI on the night. Kotchman scored a run in the third off a Torii Hunter RBI single. The Angels then added to their 3-1 lead in the sixth with three more runs, an RBI double by Kotchman, a Juan Rivera run off a squeeze bunt from Jeff Mathis, and an RBI single by Chone Figgins.

Santana got his fifth win of the season to match Joe Saunders for perfect 5-0 records. Santana went 6 2/3 innings, giving up one (unearned) run and four hits. Santana improves his record against the A’s to 8-1 with a 1.25 ERA. Darren Oliver and Justin Speier came out of the pen to hold the Angels at one run.

The 1-2 punch of Santana and Saunders finish with a 2.27 ERA for their April starts.

John Lackey had his second rehab start with Class A Rancho Cucamongo. He pitched three innings, giving up one run and one hit, before being forced to finish his workout in the bullpen due to a power outage. Lackey is still on pace to return at the end of May.

On Tuesday, Mike Scioscia announced that Lackey’s fifth starter replacement, Dustin Moseley, will remain in the bullpen as a reliever. Moseley posted a 1-2 record with a 6.75 ERA in his five starts. His move to the bullpen will prompt a Minor League callup for a starter for Thursday’s game against the A’s. Triple-A right handers Nick Green or Nick Adenhart will likely get the nod.

The Angels look for their second win against the A’s in tonight’s 7:05 game.

Ervin Santana looks to join the 5-0 club along with Joe Saunders, who acheived that last night. Santana is 7-1 lifetime against the A’s with a 1.38 ERA. The A’s will throw lefty Dana Eveland, who is 2-1 on the season.

 Santana’s and Saunder’s perfect records are the first in franchise history for two or more pitchers going 4-0 for the month of April. A Santana win would bring him to 5-0 to tie Saunders and Chien-Ming Wang for the most AL victories. An Angels win would also give them sole possession of first place, they are tied with the A’s as of now.

MLB.com is reporting that the Angels are in talks with the White Sox for a deal that would send Howie Kendrick and Ervin Santana to the White Sox for slugger Paul Konerko.  While I’d love to see a guy like Konerko driving in runs in an already solid Angels lineup, losing Kendrick and Santana would both be big.  I’d hate to cut bait on Santana after that rough season in 2007 and Kendrick looks like a keeper.  Still, it looks like the Angels have to keep up with the Joneses and right now, they’re in a pack that includes teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and Indians.  Konerko would give the Angels a much needed immediate bump, but the future cost could be pretty high if Kendrick turns out to be a All Star and Santana bounces back and puts together a few nice seasons going forward.

To go along with the great news that Torii Hunter signed with the Angels is the fact that the Angels are still stacked down in the minors.  Kevin Goldstein came out with his top eleven Angels prospects and the Angels have four guys who he’s given at least a four star rating.  When you combine this with all of the young talent on this team, it makes for an Angels team that should be good for years to come.

Nick Adenhart checks in at number one, this kid put together a solid season at Double A and it looks like at just 21, he’ll start the season at Triple A but could find himself playing for the big league club at some point in 2008.  The kid is a big right hander who Goldstein projects as a potential number two starter.

Brandon Wood, the reason the Angels could trade Orlando Cabrera, comes in at number two.  While Wood doesn’t look like he’ll get the shortstop job, he very well could be the team’s everyday third baseman and having a guy with some punch like Wood at third would give the Angels something they haven’t had in a while.

Jordan Walden is third on the list but he’s still a couple of years away as is Hank Conger, the team’s first round pick in 2006 and the fourth guy on the list.  Sean O’Sullivan, a right handed pitcher, rounds out the top five and like Conger, he had a ways to go before we start hearing his name in conjuction with the big league club.

While it’s hard to top what happened with Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees, the Angels came out of nowhere and scooped up one of the free agent gems of the Hot Stove League.  Similar to what happened when they signed Vlad Guerrero a few years back, the Angels kept things close to the vest but still go their prize by signing gold glove center fielder Torii Hunter to a five year deal worth somewhere in the range of $80-90 million.  The money is huge, but having an outfield with Hunter and Guerrero makes them immediate favorites to repeat for the AL West title.

Now, it looks like Gary Mathews, Jr. is being relegated to either a corner outfield spot or as a backup for Hunter.  It looks like they plan on using Vlad and Garrett Anderson more at DH so it should mean Mathews will be in the lineup more times then not.  Still having Mathews in left, Hunter in center and Vlad in right is about as good as you can get for a defensive and offensive outfield.

The Angels solidied their rotation by dealing their gold glove shortstop.  Cabrera is now gone and while he’ll be missed, the Angels have several options at shortstop.  It looks like Mike Scioscia mentioned Erick Aybar and Macier Izturis to fill in the spot in 2008 but the heir apparant has to be Brandon Wood.   I’d love to see Wood pan out as a major leaguer and have him playing next to Howie Kendrick for the forseeable future.

And the extra pitcher means the Angels are closer to trading for Miguel Cabrera.  They were shutout of the Alex Rodriguez sweepstakes but Cabrera would be a very solid consolation prize.  It just looks like the Marlins are looking for young pitching so having Garland as an option means the Angels shouldn’t miss a beat.

Sigh, well, the Angels went out with a whimper as they were man handled by the Red Sox over a three game set.  Jered Weaver got it done and Scott Shields got it done, but the rest of the pen just collapsed.  And one run isn’t going to cut it.

As good as the Angels are, they have their share of question marks so it’ll be an interesting offseason.  A-Rod has to be on the top of their list but he might not even be a free agent.  Barry Bonds brings his pros and cons as well so things won’t end with the Angels loss.

Well, you can argue with the situation.  Our best pitcher (at least reliever) was in there he just failed against a future Hall of Famer.  Manny Ramirez took Francisco Rodriguez deep with a three run shot as the Angels fell to 2-0 deficit in their best of five game series with the Red Sox.

Kelvim Escobar got off to a rough start and the Angels tagged him for two in the first inning.  The Angels then answered with three in the second and took their first and only lead of the game.  Jeff Mathis drove in a run with a sac. fly and then Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera belted back to back RBI doubles to make it a 3-2 game.  Escobar gave up a run in the fifth and then neither team scored until K-Rod gave up the Ramirez homer in the bottom of the ninth.

Garrett Anderson was the only Angels hitter with two hits.  And it was Justin Speier who actually took the loss because the first base runner to score in the ninth was an inherited one that Speier gave up.  Tomorrow, it’ll all be up to Jered Weaver to keep the Angels hopes alive.  The Red Sox will have veteran Curt Schilling throwing for them.

Game one was a complete disaster as the Angels bats were completely held in check by 20 game winner Josh Beckett.  Vlad Guerrero was the only guy to really have a game and he managed just two singles.  Nobody drew a walk and Garrett Anderson had a particularly tough game with two strikeouts.

John Lackey had a tough and he was mostly damaged by a pair of homers that resulted in three of the four Angels runs.  He gave up four runs in all on nine hits and two walks with four strikeouts in seven innings.  Ervin Santana was very effective and he gave up just two hits in two perfect innings of relief.

Kelvim Escobar is roughed up but he gets the start on Friday.  The Angels will have to contend with another tough Red Sox starter with Dice-K getting the ball.

We all know it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.  The Angels magic number is now down to nine and with a win tonight, it could down to eight or even seven.  What’s a more interesting question is who the Angels opponent is probably going to be.  With the Wild Card most likely being the Yankees, it means it doesn’t matter whether the Red Sox or the Angels have the better record, the Angels will get a streaking Yankees team as their first round opponent.  Of course the Tigers are still on the fringe of contending for that Wild Card and that would throw everything off.

It’s nice to see Vlad back these last few days and even though we haven’t seen it in the win column, he’s gotten it done.  He now has a seven game hitting streak and in four of the last five, he’s had a pair of hits.  He also had that big two homer game and the pair of four RBI games to help out the cause.  With Vlad in the lineup, the Angels have as good of a chance as any to walk away with the World Series win.

And what can you say about John Lackey.  He’s going to contend for the Cy Young and while he once again is going to fall short of 200 strikeouts, it was a break out year in the sense that he’s finally being mentioned as an elite starter.  Yeah, his 2007 numbers are pretty close to what he put up in 2006 but it’s the wins that people look at, even though we all know wins and losses have quite a bit of a luck element too them.  And Kelvim Escobar has been a pleasant surprise as we head down the stretch.

And the final two weeks of season will be an afterthought.  They don’t play a contender, although the Mariners have had an interesting season.  And the Rangers have been red hot but at this point, the Angels could play .500 ball and 99 times out of 100, get in the playoffs.

The Angels are 4-5 since the break, and while that’s not downright horrible, you have to consider that six of those nine games were against the Rangers and the Devil Rays.  The offense has struggled and the Mariners aren’t going away and I’d be very interested to see what kind of move that the Angels make here as the trade deadline gets closer and closer.

Joe Saunders got the job done yesterday and that helped the Angels avoid a sweep at the hands of the Twins.  He’s now 4-0 and he’s 11-3 in his short career over 21 starts.  Still an impressive record and having a guy like this in your back pocket has been huge for the Angels.  It’s probably even more strange that he struggled down at Triple A this year but you have to give some kudos to the front office for recognizing who the best guy is to win the Angels some ball games.

Vlad hasn’t hit a homerun since June 23.  We’re talking about a month now and in that time, his OPS has dropped around 70 points.  If the Angels are going to walk home with the AL West crown, Vlad is the guy who’s going to have to heat up and get them their.  Yeah, he’s still hitting around .320, but we need that punch.

John Lackey, while he’s won five of his last ten starts, is starting to get rocked on occassion.  He gave up seven runs in his last start and he has just as many five’s and six’s in the earned run column of his game log recently as he does one’s and two’s.  The end result is an increase of close to run his ERA and the last time he had a month with an ERA under 4.00 was way back in May. 

Kelvim Escobar, on the other hand, has been lights out and he’s been the stopper of late.  He’s won his last five decisions and in four of his last five starts, he’s given up a run or less.  He’s also supplanted Lackey as the team leader with a 2.85 ERA.  Good stuff and he’s already matched last season’s win total of eleven.

The Angels start a three game series with the A’s beginning tonight.  Bartolo Colon gets the start and the Angels’ hitters will see Chad Gaudin.  The A’s are pretty much done and a good series this week will bury them even further.