Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.You Oughta Know ...
That the Astros tonight will try to finish off an unlikely sweep of the Dodgers.
Los Angeles arrived in Houston with a 3.16 team ERA, while the Astros had averaged just three runs a game in their first 13 games.
Naturally, the Astros scored 14 runs in the first two games of the series, coming back from deficits of 3-0 in the first game and 4-2 and 5-4 last night.
"Well, it's a team game," manager Cecil Cooper said. "That's what we talked about at the beginning of the year. It wasn't going to be one guy. It was going to be everybody. We all had to chip in and help carry the load.From the Trainer's Room ...
"That's what you're seeing. And when you play well, that's what happens. Everybody does their part. Tonight was just a perfect example of that."
Atlanta's Garret Anderson has started just six of the Braves' 15 games and could wind up on the disabled list by the end of the week.
Signed over the winter after 2,013 games with the Angels, Anderson missed four games earlier with a strained right calf and now has missed three straight games with a strained left quadriceps, suffered Sunday running the bases.
Anderson, 36, has been on the DL twice in his career, in 2004 and 2007.
Numbers Game ...
Detroit's Magglio Ordoñez, 3-for-5 with two RBI last night, has a .368 career average in Anaheim, with 32 RBI and 11 homers in 45 games.
In Their Own Words ...
"I got off the plane in the eighth inning and had to go through customs and all that jazz. The traveling secretary was texting me back and forth. We originally planned to go to the hotel and he said, 'Go to the field, we might need you.' I got here, got on a uniform and went out there." – Darren O'Day, was was claimed by the Rangers on waiver from the Mets on Wednesday and then gave up the walkoff hit in an 11-inning loss to the Blue Jays
Advance Scouting ...
The scuffling Los Angeles Angels turn to Matt Palmer, who was 1-1 with an 11.74 ERA and .382 average allowed for Triple-A Salt Lake before being the latest to get the call to start for the Angels. Palmer, a 30-year-old who last year had an 8.53 ERA in three starts for the Giants, takes the spot of Darren Oliver (shoulder stiffness), who replaced the late Nick Adenhart. Palmer, who faces the Tigers (10:05 PM, ET), will be the seventh different starter for the Angels, who have five starters on the DL (Kelvim Escobar, John Lackey, Dustin Moseley, Oliver and Ervin Santana).
