Checkmate.

You'll have to forgive me if this post seems to ramble without focus, as I've been completely obsessed with hockey today, and focusing on last night's baseball game is understandably difficult. I've been reading old LSF posts from the last two playoff matchups between these two teams, and that certainly hasn't helped.

Dan Haren is starting the season like a man possessed. With the way this season has started, I think I can say without getting much resistance that the Angels have the best top two pitchers in the entire American League. Pause for resistance...none noted. Last night, The Chessmaster silenced one of the hottest teams (and most overrated?) around baseball in 2011, as he one hit the Indians in a 2-0 Halo victory (by the way, all the "One Hit Wonder" headlines floating around the media are indeed lame). As the lone hurler for the home team, Haren went 9 innings of 1 hit shutout ball with 8 Ks and just 2 walks. He threw 125 pitches, with 63% of them finding the strike zone, and was nearly even with 7 groundouts and 8 flyouts. It was two hours and fifteen minutes of total domination by Danny Boy.

Here's my opportunity to be completely honest. If you look back at the blog, I wasn't completely stoked with the Joe Saunders for Dan Haren trade. I really, really liked our Virginia Tech lefty, and wasn't sure when I looked at Haren's numbers. He seemed like the kind of guy who got overrated by a bidding war as we approached the trade deadline last year, and I made a lot of noise about that. However, on April 13, 2011, I am ready to admit once and for all that I was wrong. And to be completely fair, I will make it clear that Andrew told me so right when the trade happened. Haren is a stud, and it was a brilliant move by Reagins and company.

The Chessmaster is 3-0 with a 0.73 ERA this season, and that's not bad when you have him following up a 3-0 Jered Weaver with a 0.87 ERA. I mean, even though we are witnessing a very average overall start to the season for the Halos, we are also witnessing something really special when it comes to our top two starters. I know you can do the math, but we are talking about our top two starters getting the season going with a 6-0 record and a 0.80 ERA. Add to that the fact that the Angels team ERA is a nice and tidy 2.90. Like I said, we're seeing something pretty special.

As for the offense last night, it was slim pickings backing Haren up, but it was enough to get the job done. And, it was exciting. Peter Bourjos put a charge into a ball that he sent over the left field wall, and even then only barely let up on his speedy trot around the bases. Four innings later, Mark Trumbo hooked a jack around the foul pole for his first career MLB homerun. That was more than enough. Keep in mind the fact that the Angels only had four hits overall, with Saint Peter getting two of them. As I was watching the game, I was sure that Bourjos saw me calling him out on the blog yesterday, and decided to step it up. Yeah, that's what happened.

Vernon Wells finally caught a day off yesterday, riding the pine in favor of an 0 for 3 Reggie Willits. So, I get giving Vernon a day off to try and reset himself, but how is Willits getting the start over Chris Pettit? When the organziation started the year with Reggie in SLC and Chris up in the show, I figured that the situation was settled. The Halos finished 0 for 5 with RISP, and hopefully Vernon was watching with dreams of turning things around starting today, and driving those guys in.

Please also note that Mathis is hitting .192. Join me in my continued wondering why Hankie Pankie doesn't just get a shot at this time in our organization's history. He couldn't do any worse, guys.

In my mind, if the Angels can win today and take two out of three from the Indians, it'll be a big statement to the fan base that this team is starting to slowly put things together. Currently, we're 6-5, now just 2.5 back of Texas (9-3), one up on 5-6 Oakland, and two up on Seattle (4-7). With Josh Hamilton hesitating his way to a broken shoulder, and classlessly (not a word, to my knowledge) throwing his third base coach under the bus for the injury, I'm starting to feel that the Angels are primed to get closer and possibly overtake said Rangers pretty quickly. 

Today is one of those stupid 4:05 starts at The Stadium, as they continue to roll at East Coast times rather than day games for getaway days. Ervin "El Rosario" Santana (0-1, 3.68) looks to compliment the big two against Carlos "Hector" Carrasco (1-1, 5.68). Much is being made of Ervin Santana looking to this start as a chance to make up for the 2-3 loss to the Blue Jays in his last outing. He was upset about how his "one bad pitch" blew an overall good outing, and he seems focused to make something good of today's start. As for the offense, 13 of the Angels' 14 homeruns this season have come with the bases empty. That says a lot. Let's try and get on base before we drive 'em in, eh?

I'm looking at a ridiculous sports night after work, with the Halos from 4-7 and the 'Nucks-Hawks from 7-10.

How am I not at Silky's?

-- Sent from my Palm Prē