Rangers 4; Angels 5

While last night's game showed us what to expect from the 2006 Angels, tonight's game was an homage to the 2002 Angels. Kept in the game by an adequate performance from Jeff Weaver and solid work by the bullpen, the Angels offense pushed across just enough runs to win their second straight over the Rangers without the benefit of a home run.

This game wasn't on Extra Innings, as there were a plethora of NHL games to be shown, none of which featured the Kings, which is a good thing when you're recovering from an illness. Anyway, it's tough to follow those games, so I can't really speak intelligently to how Weaver looked. He obviously looked great to Hank Blalock, who tagged him twice.

After getting down by three runs, tonight's rally twins, Darin Erstand and Casey Kotchman, got the Angels back into the game with back to back doubles. Both would eventually score. The two struck again in the ninth, with the ever patient Erstad drawing a lead off walk, followed by Kotchman's single. Although Jeff Mathis failed to get the bunt down, Adam Kennedy came through with a game winning double as the Angels handed Frankie Cordova another last inning loss.

I'm not sure the Angels have the offense to do this on a consistent basis. In fact, I'm sure that they don't, so it may be a long year for the rally monkey, but he's off to a great start. Weaver did what the Angels signed him to do, and that's give the team a chance to win. With the A's losing, the Angels draw even with the A's at 5-3.

Your fun stat for the day: It's early, but all four AL West teams have allowed more runs than they've given up. In the Mariners and Rangers case, it's due to them not being very good. In the A's and Ange;s case, it's due to each of them getting slaughtered once by the Yankees, who are 3-4 despite outscoring their opponents by an average of two runs per game.