A healthy Chipper Jones is dangerous for the Mets. Jones has 19 home runs and batted .310 during his career at Shea Stadium.

Week 3 of the MLB season is in the books, and what an interesting week it was.  The Detroit Tigers remembered how to play and win, Miguel Tejada remembered a couple of birthdays he had forgotten, and on Thursday there was a fairly unforgettable 22-inning tilt between the Rockies and Padres.  Regular readers of this column may recall that the Rockies-Padres series was one of the Series of the Week for Week 3, and the three game set between the two clubs did not disappoint.  Thursday’s marathon was the rubber match, as the teams split the first two games, both lopsided, high scoring affairs.  The Rockies ended up winning 2-1 after Willy Taveras reached on an error, stole second base, then scored on a double by Troy Tulowitski. There were some remarkable numbers in the game too.  There were 147 at-bats, 37 strikeouts, 25 hits, 13 walks, and the game took 6 hours and 16 minutes to play. Whew!

Before we look at this week’s featured series’, I wanted to quickly tell you about a couple of articles you need to check out on Sports Grumblings this week.  First, every Monday, Seth Frankel takes a look at the fantasy impact of all the major transactions of the past week in his column In Focus. To satisfy your need for speed, Kevin Burgoyne brings his “A” game to Burning Up the Bases, every Tuesday.  Kevin does something a little different each week, but his columns are always packed with great information to help you find base stealers for your fantasy team. Pen Names is our Friday column that takes an in-depth look at the bullpen situations around baseball. The focus is on closers, but Keith Schirripa also includes information about middle relievers, for those of you that use them as part of your strategy. Finally, you want to be certain to check out the one column here on Sports Grumblings that runs every day, called The Grumble. Each day, a different writer takes the helm of The Grumble to bring you a different perspective on what is going on in the world of sports.  One day you may read about the NBA or the NFL draft, the next it will be all baseball, or perhaps NASCAR.  No matter what, you are guaranteed fresh, interesting, and useful information in The Grumble, each and every day.  It is also one place you will find fantasy tidbits every single day, to help you win your fantasy league.

Series of the Week – Weekday Edition – Boston Red Sox vs. LA Angels of Anaheim

The Angels come to Boston for a three game set, with games scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Week 4 in baseball.  The last time these two teams met was during the 2007 AL Division Series when the Red Sox swept the Angels in three games for the right to play against the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS.  Red Sox pitchers succeeded in shutting down the Angels offense, limiting them to just four runs over the three games.  In the opener of the series in Boston, Josh Beckett threw a complete game, four-hit gem of a shutout, setting the tone for the rest of the series. Daisuke Matsuzaka, who struggled for 4 2/3 innings, managed to hold the Halos to just three runs, then handed the game over to the bullpen, which contributed an incredible 4 1/3 innings of no-hit ball.  The score was tied at three entering the bottom of the ninth, then Manny Ramirez struck the fatal blow with a three-run, walk-off home run to secure Boston’s second win.  The final game was played in Anaheim, where Curt Schilling shut the Angels offense down again, scattering 8 hits but not allowing any runs.  It was a close game (2-0, Sox on top) until the top of the 8^th inning, when the wheels came off for the Angels and the Sox scored seven runs to put the game away.  The Angels scratched out a run in the home ninth, but the game ended with the score being 9-1, completing the Red Sox sweep.

This season, both teams are once again favored to win their divisions, and will likely to face each other in the playoffs again.  Both teams are off to strong starts, getting solid offense from their lineups, and strong performances from their pitching staffs in the early going.  However, the Angels have been bitten by the injury bug, and have several players on the DL, including pitching staff ace, John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar, and second baseman Howie Kendrick, who was placed on the DL last Friday with a hamstring injury. 

The scheduled pitching match ups for this series will be quite different for the Angels, with both Lackey and Escobar unavailable, the Angels will send Jered Weaver (1-3), Jon Garland (2-2), and Joe Saunders (3-0) to the mound.  The Red Sox are without the services of Curt Schilling, but still have plenty of aces on the staff to send out against the Halos.  The Sox will counter with Josh Beckett (2-1), Daisuke Matsuzaka (4-0), and Jon Lester (1-2).  In ten regular season meetings between the teams during the 2007 season, the Red Sox came away with wins in six of them, including 5 out of 7 games at Fenway Park. Angels pitchers had a tough time in the Sox’ bandbox last season, with a staff ERA of 6.83.  They coughed up six home runs and walked a staggering 30 batters over the course of seven games.

Casey Kotchman enters this series swinging a hot stick for the Angels, with an average of .328, 4 home runs, 12 RBI, and an on-base percentage of .371.  Over the course of his young career, he has hit Red Sox pitching fairly well, with a batting average of .338 over 19 games, and Fenway Park has been very friendly to Kotchman as well.  His career average in Fenway is and eye-popping .361 over 10 games there. My spotlighted hitter for the Red Sox is Manny Ramirez, who appears to be in mid-season form already, after just 20 games.  Over the past two weeks, Ramirez batted .388 with 5 home runs, and 14 RBI, with 10 of his 19 hits going for extra bases. He basically carried the Red Sox while David Ortiz wallowed through one of the worst slumps of his career.

Series of the Week – Weekend Edition – New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves

The Braves-Mets rivalry is one of the most storied in recent baseball history. There is no love lost between these two franchises, which have had numerous verbal confrontations in the media, and physical confrontations on the field.  Every season, for the better part of two decades, the Braves have been the team to beat in the NL East, while the Mets have had their ups and downs, winning the World Series in ’99, but more often than not, playing second fiddle to Atlanta and their vaunted pitching staff.

The Braves, Mets, and Phillies are all expected to contend this season, with the Mets seemingly doing the most this off season to improve the club by completing a trade to bring Cy Young Award winning, left-handed pitcher Johan Santana into the fold.  The Mets are currently sitting in first place, with the Braves just a couple of games behind after less than 20 games played.  This is the first of 18 meetings between the two teams this season, which promises to provide us with a horse race for supremacy in the NL East. Last season, the teams split the season series, with each team garnering 9 wins.

The scheduled pitchers for this series are as follows: for the Braves, Jair Jurrjens pitches in the opener on Friday, followed by veterans Tim Hudson on Saturday, and John Smoltz on Sunday.  The Mets will counter with rookie Mike Pelfrey on Friday, John Maine on Saturday, and Nelson Figueroa on Sunday. Braves pitchers fared pretty well at Shea Stadium, as the team won 5 of the 9 meetings there, and the staff had an ERA of 4.68.  However, they coughed up 11 long balls in those 9 games and had a staff WHIP of 1.38.

The hitters to keep an eye on in this series for the Mets would have to be David Wright, currently batting .344, and owner of a career .311 average at Shea. Another player swinging a hot stick for the Mets is Ryan Church, also currently batting .344, and owner of a career .318 average at Shea.  For Atlanta, Chipper Jones is off to an incredibly hot start, batting .449 with 6 home runs and 18 RBI to lead the team in those categories. He also has a career .310 average at Shea Stadium, with 19 homers, the most he has at any park other than his home parks for the Braves.  Yunel Escobar is also a hot hitter for the Braves.  He is batting .324 with a couple of homers, 15 runs scored, and 11 RBI in the young season.