58-47 this season

Will the Angels be out for revenge tonight? Only time will tell as they protested last night’s game and ended up losing it by a final of 8-6. It could be said that no matter that the Angels should have not given up so many runs and should have scored enough on their own to win.

In any event, they will be hungry to even up the series today. To stop them, Robin is sending out the following guys:

Alejandro De Aza CF, Youk 3B, Big Donkey DH, The King 1B, Alex Rios RF, AJ Pierzynski C, The Cuban Tank LF, The Cuban Missile SS, Bacon 2B.

Mr. Consistently Inconsistent will start for the Sox today. Gavin will be looking to even up his win-loss record for the season. And fans will be looking for the Good Gavin to show up to the ballpark today. Gavin’s last start was a loss to the Rangers where he allowed two runs (just one of which was earned) on seven hits. He did walk five batters, hit one and struck out a batter. Somehow, he managed to last 6.2 innings.

In his career against the Angels, Gavin is 2-5 and given up 31 earned runs in 56 innings of work against the Angels. This is in eight games. At the Cell lately, Gavin has been quite good. He has three wins and given up only two earned runs in 20 innings of work. Perhaps some time at home will get the good Gavin out on the field and pitching well. The last time Gavin faced the Angels at home in April 2011, he lost the game after allowing six runs on eight hits in just six innings. His last start against the Angels was in May of this year at Anaheim. In that game, he allowed seven runs on 10 hits in six innings and took the loss. We can only hope Gavin has found something to allow him more control of the baseball so he can shut down the Angels.

57-50 this season

Mike Scioscia will be sending out the following guys to win because they are probably still smarting after last night’s loss:

Mike Trout CF, Maicer Izturis SS, Albert Pujols 1B, Mark Trumbo RF, Kendrys Morales DH, Alberto Callaspi 3B, Howard Kendrick 2B, Vernon Wells LF, Chris Iannetta C.

Ervin Santana will start for the Angels tonight. Ervin has been on a 15 out limit of late. His last start against the Rangers had him on a 15 out limit and it resulted in him getting his first win since June 16. In the game, he limited the Rangers to just three runs in his five innings of work.

Overall this season, Santana has been up and down and quite frustrating in what he brings to the game each outing. Before the limit, Santana had given up 16 earned runs in nine innings. The limit seems to have been imposed to make Santana more aggressive and whether it will be used again remains to be seen.

*Notes: The Sox are still leading the majors with RISP. Good thing as those runs are so precious late in the game. With last night’s loss, the Angels have lost three games in a row for the first time since May 19-21.