Rangers vs. Angels

Rangers vs. Angels

Fired up for tonight. Texas is going to open a can up on Kelvim Escobar (2-8, 4.52 lifetime against the Rangers, including 0-3, 7.16 last year), get solid pitching from Vicente Padilla (3-0, 3.77 lifetime against the Angels, including 2-0, 1.93 in Angels Stadium), and even up the record going into Wednesday's rubber match.

OK, I snagged that from the Newberg Report. But the thing is, I totally agree with it. I didn't want to give a forecast on yesterday's game, simply because I felt it could go either way, but honestly, I was leaning more toward the Angels and I just didn't want to say it. I HATE Vlad the Ranger Slaughterer. Remember, that's professionally, not personally. I've never met the guy. Probably a nice guy, but he really should sit out on every Ranger game, unless he's a Ranger, of course.

Now, this is another tough game to call - NOT! This is like the Mavs playing a high school team who has never played basketball before... It's like predicting the outcome of a Harlem Globetrotters game. But let's see if I can pull stats to make it a little more interesting...

Let's take a look at Kelvim Escobar in more detail. He has a 4.65 ERA with a 1-6 record plus 1 save over the last 3 seasons against the Rangers. That covers 11 games, 8 in which he started. He pitched 50 1/3 innings, giving up 30 runs on 46 hits (only 26 earned) and seven homeruns. He walked 17 and struck out 42. The Rangers hit only .238 against him. Jamey, what about this .238 batting average? That's a little concerning.

Here's an interesting stat: Escobar has not given up a Grand Slam in the last three years.

Sammy Sosa has never faced Escobar and Nelson Cruz has only one at-bat. Cruz it one-for-one with an RBI and a walk. They said yesterday that since Sosa started then that Cruz would start today. We shall see.

The Rangers (current Rangers on the roster, that is) have 167 at-bats against Escobar and 36 hits for a batting average of .216 - Jamey, this doesn't get any uglier than that... OUCH! 216 is NOT pretty. OK, optimism here... YEAH!!! Rangers with 10 at-bats or more:

• Michael Young
• Hank "The Hammer" Blalock
• Mark Teixeira
• Jerry Hairston Jr.
• Kenny Lofton (who got his 600th stolen base last night - congrats!)
• Frank "The Cat" Catalanotto
• Gerald Laird

Michael Young, Jerry Hairston, and Kenny Lofton lead the team with a .250 batting average. Young has two homeruns against Escobar, as well as seven RBIs. Brad Wilkerson just missed the cut, but is hitting four out of nine (.444 average) and has one homerun, but evidently it was solo, only one RBI as well.

Time to look at the Ranger's pitcher, Vicente Padilla. Sadly, his career numbers against the Angels hitters aren't as pretty. Vlad is, of course, in the mix, so that goes without saying (355 batting average - 11 for 31, with 2 homeruns and 7 RBIs). The current Angel roster is batting .284, but Garret Anderson is the only other Angel with a home run (with one) and as a team, they have collected 16 RBIs in a mere 148 at-bats. When you think about it, it isn't all that much, especially when you consider that there is 42 hits to think about. The Angels aren't capitalizing on their hits on Padilla, which is bad for the Angels, good for the Rangers.

Question: Will this continue for tonight?

I don't know. It really isn't too much of a different Angels team from last year, but this is somewhat of a different Rangers team this year, actually in a lot of ways. The whole Harlem Globetrotter thought earlier isn't ringing so strong right now. I'm still going with the Rangers on this one - simply due to intanglibles: Padilla's strange success against the Angels and Escobar's lack of it against the Ranger's. There is also Ron Washington - he's going to start having to factor in there somewhere... might as well be here.

Forecast: Rangers over Angels 6-3. No Grand Slam, No Sammy homerun either.