Angels 4; Tigers 2 (game 1)

Well, that's sort of how it was supposed to work. Get a good effort from your starter, push a few runs across to get a lead, and turn it over to the bullpen. Colon was limited to five innings due to the rain delays, but the Angels bats came alive in the sixth and produced a couple of runs to tie the game. In the seventh, they added two more on a perfect squeeze bunt by DaVanon (who played surprisingly well), which led to a wild throw, allowing Kennedy to get to third. Kennedy then scored on a passed ball from Pudge. It didn't get too far away, and a great play might have had him. But let's just say German doesn't move to cover the plate quite as quickly as Frankie.

Horrible start to this one, with Bonderman really dominating in the early innings before the Angels finally got to him for two runs, and before the rains came back. Tremendous relief work from Donnelly (two innings), and Shields (one) who both made the Tigers just look foolish. Frankie had it going early, but seemed to lose his location, walking Inge on five pitches, and the first pitch was probably a ball as well. Frankie had Pudge pretty well taken care of, but I-Rod got just enough of one, and put it in just the right place, to pick up an infield single, and bring the winning run to the plate. But Frankie relaxed and got the grounder to short to end the game.

Let's face it. Wins and runs are very scarce right now, so they need every bit of both that they can get. This was a much needed good start to the road trip, because the rest of the trip could get ugly.

Big question for the day: Are the extra innings folks smart enough to realize that these teams are playing a double header today, and if so, will both be televised? I'm guessing a generous 'maybe' on the former, and an almost sure 'No' on the latter. The other game they have scheduled for that channel doesn't start until late on the West Coast, so that shouldn't be an issue. But it would be almost anathema to these folks to actually think ahead for once. I'll gladly eat crow if either a) I'm wrong and it is televised, or b) neither team is carrying the second game (but I'm 99% sure that at least the Tigers are carrying it, and we've had the Tigers feed all day). We'll see if they carry it on MLB.com.

Congratulation, Comcast! For once, a complete fuck up isn't your fault!