Game Countdown – 7/22/09: Let’s Play Two – Angels @ Royals

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (52-38) @ Kansas City Royals (37-54)

Game 1 Starters: LAA – Ervin Santana (2-5, 6.70 ERA)  KC – Sidney Ponson (1-5, 7.27 ERA)

Game 1 Info: 2:10 PM PT TV-Fox Sports West, Radio-KLAA 830 AM, KFWB, KWKW 1330 AM

Game 2 Starters: LAA – Sean O’Sullivan (2-0, 3.80 ERA)  KC – Bruce Chen (0-4, 6.86 ERA)

Game 2 Info: ~5:10 PM PT TV-Fox Sports West, Radio-KLAA 830 AM, KFWB, KWKW 1330 AM

Thanks to some untimely rain in Kansas City yesterday the Angels and Royals will be busting out a doubleheader today.

This is actually an unfortunate development for the Angels because any baseball fan will tell you that most doubleheaders result in a split and with the Angels being a vastly superior club to the hapless Royals, a split would actually be a disappointment.  Nonetheless, there is a reason they play the games, so let’s get ready to double down on some MLB action.

THREE Questions:

• Can the Angels protect their rickety bullpen?  If the bad Ervin Santana rears his ugly head today and gets an early hook, the Angels could be in major danger of over taxing the relief corps today, especially with no guarantee the O’Sullivan will be any better in the backend of the twin billing.
• On a scale of 0 to 10 how happy am I to see that even Jose Guillen agrees now that he sucks?  The answer is 97.
• Could the Angels possibly really lose even one game to two re-tread schleps like Sidney Ponson and Bruce Chen?

TWO Predictions:

• Ervin Santana will give the Halos another strong start, putting Roy Halladay trade plans on the backburner.
• Sean O’Sullivan will get bombed, placing the Halladay plans back on the frontburner.

ONE Wish:

• For the first time ever I am wishing for some line-up hijinx from Mike Scioscia so that he can protect his roster from suffering anymore injuries.  Specifically, Bobby Abreu needs to at least DH once to save his old bones from taking too much punishment while patrolling the outfield twice in one day.

ZERO Tolerance for… a double dose of Physioc and Hudler.  I am thanking my lucky stars I am stuck at work and will miss the first game on TV, sparing my ears from bleeding by the end of the night.

Leave your own questions, answers, predictions or wishes as a comment or just hang out with us during the game.