Only one team in baseball has won more games than the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, that being the Boston Red Sox. This is not the happiest of seasons to be a Yankee fan, to say the least. The Angels swept the Yankees in Anaheim back at the end of May winning one high-scoring affair and two close, low-scoring games.

The upside for the Yankees this weekend, beyond Old Timer’s Day, is that they miss two of the Halos’ top three starters (Weaver and Escobar) and that they’re coming into the series on a relative high having done what they needed to do against the Twins, taking the three games not started by Johan Santana to finish their season series with Minnesota with a 5-2 record. Meanwhile, the Angels come in on something of a slide having dropped six of nine to the pitiful Royals, Orioles, and Rangers, the first of those having swept them in Angel Stadium.

Adding to the good news, tonight the Yankees get a crack at a favorite wipping boy in Bartolo Colon (career 5.32 ERA against New York). Colon is ripe for the picking having struggled with injuries all year and having posted a 7.91 ERA over his last seven starts, allowing eleven home runs along the way. Alex Rodriguez, who is a career .440/.460/1.133 hitter against Colon with a whopping eight home runs in 45 at-bats, will return to the lineup at third base looking to use that matchup to break out of a small 0 for 15 slump. Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui, and Robinson Cano all have OPSs over 1.000 against Colon, and Johnny Damon (starting in left field tonight with Matsui at DH) falls just short of that mark.

On the flip side, the Angels’ hitters have pretty good numbers against Andy Pettitte as well, but only Garret Anderson and Gary Matthews Jr. have more than ten at-bats against him and only two others have ever faced him. Andy’s looking to rebound from his disaster outing his last time out.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

2007 Record: 52-33 (.612)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 49-36 (.581)

Manager: Mike Scioscia
General Manager: Bill Stoneman

Home Ballpark (2007 Park Factors): Angel Stadium (95/96)

Who’s Replacing Whom?

Garret Anderson (DL) replaces Shea Hillenbrand
Jeff Mathis (minors) replaces Mike Napoli (DL)
Maicer Izturis (DL) replaces Erick Aybar (DL)
Nathan Haynes (minors) replaces Tommy Murphy (minors)
Chris Resop (minors) replaces Hector Carrasco

25-man Roster:

1B – Casey Kotchman (L)
2B – Howie Kendrick (R)
SS – Orlando Cabrera (R)
3B – Chone Figgins (S)
C – Jose Molina (R)
RF – Vladimir Guerrero (R)
CF – Gary Matthews Jr. (S)
LF – Reggie Willits (S)
DH – Garret Anderson (L)

Bench:

R – Robb Quinlan (1B)
S – Kenry Morales (1B)
S – Maicer Izturis (IF)
L – Nathan Haynes (OF)
R – Jeff Mathis (C)

Rotation:

R – John Lackey
R – Ervin Santana
R – Jered Weaver
R – Kelvim Escobar
R – Bartolo Colon

Bullpen:

R – Francisco Rodriguez
R – Scot Shields
L – Darren Oliver
R – Dustin Moseley
R – Chris Bootcheck
R – Chris Resop

15-day DL: R – Mike Napoli (C), S – Erick Aybar (IF), R – Justin Speier
60-day DL: R – Juan Rivera (OF), L – Dallas McPherson (3B)

Typical Lineup:

S – Reggie Willits (LF)
S – Chone Figgins (3B)
R – Orlando Cabrera (SS)
R – Vladimir Guerrero (RF)
S – Gary Matthews Jr. (CF)
L – Casey Kotchman (1B)
L – Garret Anderson (DH)
R – Howie Kendrick (2B)
R – Jose Molina (C)