Game Talk – 5/20/09: Sacrifice – Angels @ Mariners

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (20-18) @ Seattle Mariners (18-22)

Starters: LAA – Ervin Santana (0-0, 5.40 ERA)  SEA – Chris Jakubauskas (2-4, 7.13 ERA)

Game Info: 7:10 PM PT TV-Fox Sports West, Radio-KLAA 830 AM, KFWB, KWKW 1330 AM

When the Angels and Mariners play, it is all about sacrifice.  No, not the metaphorical kind of sacrifice, or the even the crappy Creed song, but literally sacrifices.

Ladies and gentelmen, the core of the Angel offense.

Guess which team leads the American League in sacrifice bunts?  Seattle (18).

Guess who is second?  The Angels (14).

Guess which team leads the American League in sacrifice flys?  The Halos (15, tied with the Twins and Toronto).

Guess which two teams are tied for total sacrifice hits?  The Angels and Mariners (29 a piece).

And people wonder why these teams have so much trouble scoring.  I see no reason not to force these two teams to play without a DH since they are so fond of the National League-style small ball.  Now that is a real sacrifice… well for the Angels anyway.  Seattle designated hitters are hitting .240 on the season.  You know what?  Forget I said anything.  On to the questions…

Questions of the Night:

• What does Ervin have in him tonight?  Santana was a little iffy in his season debut, but now that he has his first start under his belt and gotten over whatever lingering arm health concerns he had, he should be free to let it rip tonight.
• Will Howie play tonight?  Even though he is showing signs of coming around, Scioscia has been insisting on rotating Izturis, Aybar and Kendrick through the line-up lately.  I would like to think Sosh is smart enough to not jerk with a hitter starting to get hot, but stranger things have happened, especially when Scioscia’s beloved Maicer is involved.
• Should the Angels just try and hit the ball to Seattle infielders?  Six players are tied for the league lead in errors at 7.  Three of those players are members of Seattle’s starting infield (Adrian Beltre, Jose Lopes and Yuniesky Betancourt)