Angels salvage a game; the Royals come to town

Its not just that the Angels avoided a sweep by beating the Mariners 10-5 yesterday, it’s the fact that they left the Mariners a shell of the club that had racked up 16 runs in the first two games of the series.

Erik Bedard was scratched from the game due to his nagging hip injury. Miguel Cairo filled in for Adrian Beltre at third, who was on the bench due to a leg injury gained in Saturday’s game. Although Brad Wilkerson got a regular day off, his replacement, Mike Morse, injured his shoulder diving for a ball. And Jamie Burke may have been giving Kenji his usual Sunday off, but just when there were signs of life in Joh’s bat, Burke killed the M’s only chances with a bases-loaded, one-out double play in the second inning. According to the fan graph for yesterday’s game, Burke’s rally-killing DP decidedly swung the game in the Angels favor, but we all knew that happened the moment Bedard’s hip flared up.

And Eric O’Flaherty is little more than a walking corpse at this point. It’s hard to believe, but by allowing 6 runns in 2.2 innings didn’t change his 20.25 ERA one iota.

Raul kept swinging his hot bat, picking up three RBIs on a single and a double (I was off by just one total base- dang), but that does little when the rest of the line-up is being sent back to the dugout with ease by Angels starter Joe Saunders. Due to Bedard being replaced last second by Cha Seung Baek, the expected pitcher’s duel never materialized.  Or, rather, it was entirely one-sided. Though the M’s did raise Saunders’s ERA from 0.56 entering the game to 1.27, the M’s were never really in this one. It’s hard to say that Saunders was dominating yesterday, with a 1:1 strikeout-to-ball ratio. Still, somehow he always seemed to get that ground ball when needed to minimize any chances the M’s offense could mount (see Burke, second inning).

So the M’s are a little short-handed as the upstart Royals come into town. With the Royals’ 7-5 record and their league-best pitching, the M’s have their work cut out for them. For the second game in a row, the Mariners are facing in Zack Greinke who has an ERA under a buck, as Greinke has allowed just one run in the 15 innings he’s tossed so far, and is fresh off a start in which he tossed eight shutout innings, silencing the mighty Yankees offense. Greinke has been roughed up a bit by the Mariners, having been kept without a decision in five appearances and allowing 27 hits and a .318 BAA in 21 innings. Still, he also has a 14:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against the M’s during that span, so I’m sure he will be attacking the strike zone, taking advantage of a depleted Mariners offense, one that wasn’t all that hot at full strength anyway. Still, with Raul Ibanez having five hits in ten career at-bats against Greinke, any chance for the M’s offense to come alive in today’s game falls on Raul’s shoulders.

Jarrod Washburn takes the hill for the M’s, bringing an 8-4 record and a 3.36 ERA in 88 innings over 14 starts against the Royals. His last start against the Royals was eight shutout innings twirled last July Fourth, holding the Royals’ young studs Alex Gordon and Billy Butler a combined 0-for-7 with two strikeouts. Perhaps the pitcher’s duel that never materialized will be in today’s ballgame?

I doubt it. I think Greinke will have little problem with the M’s today as the Royals win 4-1. Oh, why can’t the Tigers be coming into town instead?