Texas Rangers (45-36) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (46-35)
Starters: TEX – Dustin Nippert (0-0, -.– ERA) LAA – John Lackey (3-3, 4.70 ERA)
Game Info: 7:05 PM PT TV-Fox Sports West, Radio-KLAA 830 AM, KFWB, KWKW 1330 AM
With first place all to themselves, the Angels have a golden opportunity to pull away from the Rangers by smacking them around for the rest of this series.
I’m going to go ahead and say this guy doesn’t look ready to pitch tonight.
Of course, the Angels tried this before when they took the first game from Texas in the last series between these two clubs, only to subsequently drop the next two games. But this is the Angels home turf now and Big John Lackey will called upon to step on the Rangers’ necks. Despite having a career ERA of 5.79 ERA against Texas, Lackey has been rolling lately and will be facing spot starter Dustin Nippert who is making his first appearance of the year and enters the game with a career ERA of 6.42 in 141.2 innings. Good luck with that Texas.
THREE Questions:
- Have you voted for Figgins yet? The race is close, but Figgins is now in third behind both Ian Kinsler and freaking Brandon Inge. Unacceptable. VOTE NOW!
- Was it really the red uniforms? The Rangers were 5-1 against the Angels before last night, but those previous wins largely came with the red uniforms Texas stole from the Angels. Have the Angels turned the tables on them by forcing them to wear their road blue and grays?
- Can Lackey last more than two pitches? Lest we forget, the last time Lackey started against the Rangers, he sailed his first two pitches behind Ian Kinsler’s head and was promptly ejected. Awesome.
TWO Predictions:
- The winner of the last three games in this series have scored nine runs in the victory. I could take the easy way out here and say that won’t happen tonight, but I am going the other way and saying it will. I’m just bold like that, being able to make such a crazy prediction that if wrong has absolutely zero impact on anybody. You know you envy me.
- Scioscia has been trying to turn Lackey into an old fashioned workhorse, having him work 7+ innings in seven of his last eight starts. Tonight though, I suspect he doesn’t make it out of the sixth despite Sosh’s best efforts.
ONE Wish:
- I wish the Vicente Padilla were pitching tonight. He has yet to make his annual attempt at beaning Vladimir Guerrero in the head, which usually fires Vladi up. That could have been exactly what Guerrero needs to keep his hot streak going the rest of the season.
ZERO Tolerance for… any talk about Michael Jackson. Enough already.
Leave your own questions, answers, predictions or wishes as a comment or just hang out with us during the game.