Ohh boy guys and gals! Since I live in SoCal and do not have access to KICU on MLB Extra Innings, I have the distinct privilege this evening to listen to the existential musings of baseball's most colorful color commentator Rex Hudler! Seriously, that guy and his unqualified praise of every Angel of the past, present and future just thrust my intense dislike of everything Angel into the stratosphere. I'll seriously be considering placing my TV on mute tonight, just to spare my sanity...
Although, it's actually fun to listen to him when the Angels are losing, when he's embarrassing himself by scrambling incoherently for positive things to say...so lets hope, just maybe for my sake, that Greg Smith and the rest of the Green and Gold can make it happen this evening. Tonight might be the team's best chance to steal one from the streaking Halos and get back on track and back in the mix for the AL West lead, as The Halos will be sending their least formidable starter to the mound tonight in the person of Jon Garland.
While Jon currently sports a better-than-average ERA of 3.99 on the season and is 5-3 on the year, he's walked more batters than he's struck out so far this year (22-29) K-BB ratio and has given up more than a hit an inning for an un-impressive overall WHiP of 1.46. The A's beat Garland fairly convincingly on April 28th of this year and let's hope they can rack up a similar amount of damage against him tonight (7 Earned Runs on 10 hits over 6 innings).
As for the home team, Greg Smith will toe the rubber this evening. I have a good feeling about Greg tonight. Greg threw really well against the Halos earlier this year, going 8 innings, striking out 5, walking 3 and giving up only a couple of runs. Greg is also pitching at home tonight, where he is 2-1 with a 2.27 ERA. Also, with his world-class pickoff move and league-leading 7 pickoffs, Smith should be able to neutralize Scioscias's speed-based stratagems. Greg also is a guy who lives on the corners of the strike zone and forces batters to put the ball-in-play...against a free-swinging team like the Angles, such a pitching plan could lead to a lot of early-count outs and ground balls. Hopefully Crosby and Ellis will be a little more adept with handling those ground balls tonight than they were yester eve...
Angels
1. Izturis
2. Kendrick
3. Guerrero
4. Hunter
5. Matthews Jr.
6. Quinland
7. Rivera
8. Wood
9. Mathis
A's
1. Hannahn (DH)
2. Crosby (SS)
3. Cust (LF)
4. Chavez (3B)
5. Ellis (2b)
6. Barton
7. Buck
8. Cargon (CF)
9. Suzuki (c)
