Game Countdown – 9/9/09: Lucky Number Nine – Mariners @ Angels

9/9/09, what a perfect day for the Angels to pick up their ninth win of the season against the Seattle Mariners.

Nine is tonight’s lucky number!

As if that weren’t enough, the Angels will be facing Ian Snell who currently has nine losses on the year to go with six wins (which is just nine upside down).  How strange is it that the Angels will be starting Jered Weaver, whose number 36, adds up to 9?  As does the number of Angel franchise player Vladimir Guerrero who wears 27.  And is it any coincidence that each team uses a line-up of nine players?  Well, yeah, it probably is, I probably got a little carried away there.  Anyway… on to the countdown.

Seattle Mariners (72-67) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (82-55)

Starters: SEA – Ian Snell (6-9, 5.21 ERA)  LAA – Jered Weaver (14-5, 3.79 ERA)

Game Info: 7:05 PM PT TV-Fox Sports West, Radio-KLAA 830 AM, KFWB, KWKW 1330 AM

THREE Questions:

• Can Weaver make it three strong starts in a row and pick up his 15th win of the year?
• Are the Angels really supposed to be scared of a pitcher, Ian Snell, that even the Pittsburgh Pirates gave up on?
• Is any Angel batter going to step up and put the struggling offense on his back?

TWO Predictions:

• On the day of Nines, how can I not predict a big day from Chone Figgins.  Let’s see, I’ll say he reaches base three times, scores twice, steals two bases and makes one highlight reel defensive play.
• The cheesy thing to do would be to predict that nine total runs will be scored in the game, but I am not going to do that.  In fact, I will guarantee less than nine runs are scored, but I will guarantee that the game only goes nine innings.  Yes, I am THAT bold.

ONE Wish:

• I wish for the Angels to have a good scouting report on Snell.  Yes, he is 4-1 as a Mariner, but he has also walked 23 batters in 35 innings.  Patience must be the order of the night if they want to jump out early and put away the M’s.

ZERO Tolerance for… anymore runners stranded in scoring position.  The Angel line-up is too deep and too talented to have to keep scratching runs out with sac bunts all the time.

Leave your own questions, answers, predictions or wishes as a comment or just hang out with us during the game or even chat with us on twitter (@MonkeyWithAHalo).