The good news is I finally got a prediction right, the bad news is that I wish I didn't.

Rangers 5, Angels 4

Mike Scioscia finally saw the light and took eighth inning duties away from Fernando Rodney and handed them over to Rich Thompson.  On paper, this was a good idea.  The man they call Chopper has been tremendous this season and hadn't allowed a run to score since April 21st, unlike Fraudney who allows runs in every other apperance, if not more frequently.

Instead, Chopper done got chopped and so did the Angels.  Needless to say, but Rich picked a really bad time to lose his control.  He'd walked only three batters all year coming into the game and somehow walked the first two batters he faced.  The real question is why it happened?  Was he nervous because of the pressure of the situation?  Did he just have an off day?  Will he get another chance to be the righty setup man or did he blow his only audition?

Personally, I think Thompson should get another shot, if only because the Halos have no other real alternatives.  Scioscia though, I'm not so sure he is going to agree.

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Los Angeles Angels Anaheim (22-18) @ Texas Rangers (20-19)

Pitching Probables: LAA – Ervin Santana (1-4, 4.81 ERA)  TEX – C.J. Wilson (4-2, 3.36 ERA)

Game Info: 12:05 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

There's nothing like a little rubber match on the road against the division rival is there?

Early in the season though it might be, the Angels have a real chance to send a message today if they can win this series.  Doing so would give the Halos two series victories in as many tries against Texas and both series wins would have taken place in Arlington.  There is still a whole lot of season left to play after this, but these two squads don't face each other again until after the All-Star break, so the Rangers would have a lot of time to think about whether or not the Angels have their number once again.

Dan Haren has got to be feeling a little snake bit. All he does is keep going out there and putting himself in a position to win and continues to have nothing to show for it. Today it was another 7/23 of awesomeness only to see it blown in the 8th. But some clutch hitting saved the day and Walden's return to form in the ninth gave the Halos a much needed win. So for at least another couple of days, we can bask in the glow of the first place Angels. Sounds good, doesn't it...

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (21-17) @ Texas Rangers (19-18)

Pitching Probables:   LAA – Dan Haren (4-2, 1.87 ERA)  TEX -- Derek Holland (3-1, 5.18 ERA)

Game Info: 1:10 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

Scene opens with Mike Scioscia starring out at his collection of mighty mites and calmly addressing the team. "Okay, we are turning the page here boys. Time to lace up the cleats and get to work. We got Danny on the bump and that gives us a shot at winning. We need a full team effort today, cause we've got a tough lefty to face. I know it's a day game in Arlington but the baseball gods have blessed us with a beautiful day to go out and get ourselves back on the winning track. I can't emphasize this enough, a win today is key to our hopes of being the team we think we can be. Now get out there and give it all you got."

"Jeff, a moment, (pause) if you don't get at least two hits today so help me I will beat you with your bat till you think your back in Kindergarten. Now go get 'em kid!"

(at least that is how I envision the pregame for today going...)

So the Angels came into Arlington needing to set the tone with their new found rivals. I get the sense the Rangers don't take the Angels very seriously as a threat to their eventual march to another Western Division crown. Tonight's game only reinforced that idea. The Angels seemed to lack the ability to get the big hit unlike the Rangers. Most experts believe that really the only reason the team is in first place was that the Weaverr-Haren duo started out of the gate so hot. But Weaver has cooled, now losing three straight, and Texas has the pitching to match the one Angels strength, which could spell trouble come September.

Rangers 4 Angels 1

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (21-17) @ Texas Rangers (19-18)

Pitching Probables:   LAA – Jered Weaver (6-2, 1.87 ERA)  TEX -- Alexi Ogando (3-0, 2.17)

Game Info: 5:05 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

Conventional wisdom says that you don't really know anything about the baseball season until Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Therefore, not too much should be read into an early season tilt within the division. But I think that these next three games are criitical for the Angels for a number of reasons. Texas is not healthy with the absence of Josh Hamilton severly hurting their offensive prowess. The rotation is set with Weaver, Haren and Santana getting the calls for the Halos (though the Rangers get to counter with their three best as well). And it won't feel like they are playing on the face of the sun like it will later in the year.

Now that we've had a night to digest the news of Kendrys Morales having his season declared over even though it never really began, it is time to take a step back to look at the big picture of how his loss will affect the Halos going forward.

The good news is that things aren't nearly as dire for the Angels as it was when he first hurt himself, probably because the Angels had somewhat planned for this contingency coming into the year.

Now, now, relax, I'm not going the "truther" route and suggesting that the Angels knew all along Morales wasn't going to play this season and conspired to make us believe otherwise (though 9/11 totally was an inside job, no question), merely that they knew a slow recovery was possible and this worst case scenario had at least a decent probability of coming to pass.

That's why they added another bopper in Vernon Wells (nice idea, poorly executed) and never seriously shopped Mark Trumbo even though it seemed that he had no real long-term future with the team.

All that has really done so far though is prevented us from having to suffer from another call-up of Paul McAnulty.  Like I said, that's good, but now that we know Morales is not coming back this year, I sure hope there is more to their contingency plan than that.