On Deck: Battle For AL West Supremacy - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Angels (16-10) vs. Oakland Athletics (16-10) - 10:05PM Est.

The fact that the Angels and Athletics are fighting for the top spot in the AL West isn't exactly a new experience. I mean, they've been doing it for just about the entire 21st century but they weren't supposed to be doing it this season. No, the AL West this season was supposed to be a two-horse race between the Angels and Mariners while the Athletics were supposed to be mired in a rebuilding process and battling with the Rangers for third place.

Yet here we are nearly finished with the first month of the regular season, and Oakland is tied with Los Angeles for the best record in the American League. To make it even more surprising, they're doing it without Eric Chavez and Rich Harden.

Just what the hell is going on here?


Well, when your pitching staff has the lowest ERA in the league (3.22) and is nearly a half run better than the next best team (Tampa Bay 3.63), you're going to win some games. Chad Gaudin will go to the mound in Anaheim tonight looking to lower that ERA even further, and to win his third straight start. To do so will require Chad to reverse his fortune against the Angels, as he's winless in his last four starts against them, and is 1-2 with a 5.09ERA in six career starts.

The Angels will counter with Jon Garland, who's looking to win his third straight start as well. Garland hasn't been pitching all that well since going out west, but he's been helped out by the second highest scoring offense in the AL. In his career against Oakland, Garland is 3-8 with a 4.58 ERA. Oh, and he won't be happy to see Frank Thomas in those white shoes, as the Big Hurt has hurt Garland in his career, going 5-for-9 with two homers against his former teammate.

Cleveland Indians (12-13) vs. New York Yankees (13-13) - ESPN 7:05PM Est.

The Indians saw a couple of streaks come to an end on Sunday when they lost to the Yankees 1-0. First and foremost, it ended a 5-game win streak that helped the team get from the bottom of the AL Central to second place, and a sore ankle ended Grady Sizemore's Major League best streak of 382 consecutive games played. He was so close to catching Cal, too! What a shame.

It's unclear whether or not Grady will start a new streak this evening, but the Indians would like to get back to .500 either way. To do so, they'll be turning to Aaron Laffey who will be making his first start with the Tribe this season after being called up from the minors thanks to a rainout in Kansas City last week. Laffey made nine starts for Cleveland last season, going 4-2 with a 4.56 ERA, but hasn't faced the Yankees.

The Yankees will be trying to salvage a split in this four-game series with Mike Mussina, and they're really hoping to see more of the Moose that showed up in Chicago last week than the one they saw to start the season. Moose had his strongest outing of the season agains the White Sox, going seven innings and allowing only two runs. Though he won't be throwing to Jorge Posada, who's been placed on the disabled list for the first time in his career.

New York Mets (13-11) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (10-15) - 7:10PM Est.

Johan Santana will be making his second start of the season in front of his new hometown crowd, and I'm pretty sure he's hoping not to hear any more boos this time around. Since that outing, Johan has won his last two starts, and is looking for number three tonight. Thankfully for Johan and Mets fans, he's going against the Pirates, so it shouldn't be too tough of a night for him. He's only faced them one time in his career, back in 2006, and he picked up a win for the Twins that day.

Though it's not going to be that easy for the Mets, because even though the Pirates suck, they do actually have one good pitcher, and he's pitching today. Ian Snell had a rough start in his last outing, allowing four runs to the Cardinals in the first inning, but he settled down after that and his team bailed him out by coming back from the deficit and picking up the win. Ian's still looking for his first win against the Mets, though, as he's 0-1 with a 6.48 ERA in three starts.