Angels Pitching Matchups With Boston

The Angels were swept by the Red Sox a few days ago in Anaheim. Four games. Now they venture to the world's largest publicly-subsidized urinal, Fenway Park for four more games.

Other than the Angels, the Boston Nine have looked quite mortal. Key to the Angels having any chance in Hades against the denizens of said fiery pit will be the pitching. Here are the coming matchups that we all have to look forward to:

MONDAY (tonight): Jered Weaver Vs. Clay Buchholz ...Advantage: Angels

Weaver did not face the Red Stockings in the four game SoCal series. Currently the best pitcher in baseball at 6-0, his .99 ERA and 49 K in 45 IP are the thing of legend. Buchholz is having a cruddy 2011 (ERA over 5, and a 1.85 WHIP) and we can all dream that by the fourth inning his hometown fans are purposefully mispronouncing the Texas native's last name to make fun of him. The Weave will be pitching on six days rest so look for him to dominate.

TUESDAY (tomorrow night): Dan Haren Vs. Jon Lester ...Advantage: Chowds

Haren had trouble against the Pilgrims in Anaheim and Fenway Park only adds to his flyball-laden misery. As great as his record has been so far this season, his one loss has been to Boston and he will have to be perfect to avoid a case of Homerroids. Lester struck out 8 Angels and they just could not solve him. This game could easily be a battle of the bullpens and that actually might tilt our way.

WEDNESDAY (day after tomorrow): Ervin Santana Vs. Josh Beckett ...Advantage: Them

Night game on the road used to be a slam dunk for the magic man. While we can all hope for another bunch of Ks, El Meneo has not exactly been swish-swish this year. Beckett is the most overrated pitcher in baseball and can be gotten to, so this is not exactly lopsided.

THURSDAY (a few days from now): Joel Pineiro Vs. John Lackey ...Advantage: Angels

This game coincides with Cinco De Mayo and the likelihood that the Boston crowd will be a little too tipsy to be a factor will combine with John Lackey's natural Homerun handouts to hand us many opportunities. Meanwhile, JP is a stingy groundballer and looked scintillating in his first start of the season Saturday in TB.

No I won't be happy with just a split. Key to the contests is to pretend we are playing the Yankees, which we actually are seeing as this is a high payroll East Coast media darling with know-nothing fans paying a high cover charge for an outdoor tavern with overpriced drinks and a long wait until the jukebox plays Neil Diamond. One way to get psyched up is to look into the stands, see all the pink hats and clover cartoon Made in China green tee-shirts - take a gander from the jail cell-like dugout and then pretend those half-wit silverspooners standing in front of Stephen King during the action are actually the men and women taking the field against us. Go Angels!