Texas' pitching sucks. And the Angels took advantage of it scoring at least 6 runs in all four of their games. That's 4 straight days without a Mickey Hatcher complaint. But now the Angels are on to Seattle and things are different there.
The hitting explosion was nice. Casey Kotchman, Shea Hillenbrand, Mike Napoli and Gary Matthews Jr all hit home runs. Reggie Willits and Kotchman reached base 9 times, while Vladimir Guerrero and Orlando Cabrera each reached base 8 times.
It would be nice to think that the Angels bats are hot right now, but it probably had more to do with Texas' pitching. The four starters they faced were Padilla 4.78 (era), Loe 5.89, Wood 7.02 and Millwood 6.62.
In Seattle they are scheduled to face Felix Hernandez 1.56, Cha Seung Baek 5.40, Jarrod Washburn 2.64.
Hernandez is making his first start after spending 4 weeks on the DL with soreness in his elbow. In his first couple of starts this season, the 21-year old Hernandez was virtually unhittable. On Opening Day he shutout the Oakland A's for 8 innings while striking out 12 and allowing just 3 hits. His next start was a complete game, one-hit shutout of the Red Sox in Boston. Hernandez will be on a pitch count, so the Angels hitters need to show some patience and take some pitches.
Baek was the replacement for Hernandez in the rotation. He pitched a complete game in his last outing, beating the Detroit Tigers 9-2. He is now taking the spot of Jeff Weaver, who went on the DL with right shoulder tendinitis. In 6 starts, Weaver was 0-6 with a 14.32 era, so the "tendinitis" must be bad.
Washburn is 5th in the American League in era, yet only has a record of 3-3. He is coming off a strong performance against the Yankees where he threw 8 shutout innings.
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