The A's fell to 0-4 in series openers this year as Bartolo Colon shut them down, leading the Angels to a 6-1 win. Barry Zito, believe it or not, pitched well, giving up just two runs in eight innings, with six strikeouts and one walk (though he did perpetrate three HBP's, including Steve Finley twice). The Angels put the game away in the top of the ninth against the bullpen, scoring four times as Juan Cruz, Ricardo Rincon, and Huston Street struggled to put the Angels away, with no help from a Charles Thomas error in right field.

Francisco Rodriguez shut the A's down in the bottom of the ninth anyway, so whether it was 6-1 or 2-1, the Angels probably win, but you never know - maybe the batters come to the plate with a different mindset and actually make something happen, maybe Rodriguez feels a little bit of pressure and misses with a few pitches, or maybe something crazy happens.

Something crazy probably would have had to happen, because the A's managed just two baserunners all game, a single by Scott Hatteberg and a double by Mark Kotsay. Thank goodness those happened in the same inning, or Oakland would have been shut out again.

This is as good a time as ever to note that I refuse to call the Angels by their chosen name, Los Angeles. The team has a contract to live up to, so I'm going to do my part to help them live up to that contract and refer to them as the Anaheim Angels.

ARC

MVOP for 4/15: Scott Hatteberg, 0.4857, for driving in the only run of the game. The only other player with a positive ARC in the game was Mark Kotsay, whose double allowed Hatteberg's hit to be meaningful.

LVOP for 4/15: Jason Kendall, -0.8493. Nobody's ARC scores were very low because nobody came up with many run-scoring opportunities. Kendall, though, had Kotsay on second with no outs at one point, so his out in that at-bat garners him the lowest score for the day.

MVP for 4/15: Barry Zito, 2.3032, for a strong eight-inning performance that, with a decent effort from the bullpen and offense, would have earned him his first win in recent memory.

LVP for 4/15: Huston Street, -1.6641, who wasn't helped by the defense of Charles Thomas, but who also gave up a couple of hits with runners on, allowing Anaheim to pad their lead.

Standings

MVOP:

1. Mark Ellis, Nick Swisher -- 2
2. Marco Scutaro, Jason Kendall, Eric Byrnes, Mark Kotsay, Erubiel Durazo, Scott Hatteberg -- 1

LVOP:

1. Erubiel Durazo -- 4
2. Jason Kendall -- 2
3. Mark Ellis, Bobby Kielty, Marco Scutaro, Nick Swisher -- 1

MVP:

1. Huston Street, Dan Haren -- 2
2. Kiko Calero, Kirk Saarloos, Joe Blanton, Justin Duchscherer, Rich Harden, Barry Zito -- 1

LVP:

1. Barry Zito, Huston Street -- 2
2. Ricardo Rincon, Kirk Saarloos -- 1