Rotation

In normal circumstances, it's the bullpen that comes to the aid of a starting pitcher. But there's nothing normal about the circumstances surrounding the Angels' pitching staff these days. So Manager Mike Scioscia said Friday he'll try to right the staff with the second-highest earned-run average in baseball by using one of his starters to bail out his ailing relief corps, moving right-hander Garrett Richards from the rotation to the back of the bullpen. Right-handed Jerome Williams will start in Richards' place Sunday.

The Angels are 10 games out of first place. They have not been so far behind so early in a season since 2001. That was the year before the World Series, the decade of success, and the transformation into perennial contenders. Not too many fans showed up, and the few who did had little expectation the team would play in October. In 2001, the Angels filled out their starting rotation by signing Pat Rapp and Ismael Valdes. The veterans would eat some innings, and the Angels would see if their kids could pitch.

The Lakers are struggling to win games which may lead Coach Mike Brown to tinker with his rotation. The pecking order is clear at point guard with Steve Nash getting the bulk of the minutes, assuming he quickly gets over the lower-leg contustion that knocked him out of the game in Portland. Steve Blake is the primary backup.  Chris Duhon gets spot minutes.  Darius Morris is a project. At shooting guard , Kobe Bryant will get the lion share of minutes.  Brown went with Jodie Meeks in the first game behind Bryant but relied more on Devin Ebanks the next night.

In normal circumstances, it's the bullpen that comes to the aid of a starting pitcher. But there's nothing normal about the circumstances surrounding the Angels' pitching staff these days. So Manager Mike Scioscia said Friday he'll try to right the staff with the second-highest earned-run average in baseball by using one of his starters to bail out his ailing relief corps, moving right-hander Garrett Richards from the rotation to the back of the bullpen. Right-handed Jerome Williams will start in Richards' place Sunday.

Of the many statistics that indicate the potential strength of the Angels' pitching rotation, most prominent are the 61-37 record, 2.97 earned-run average and 774 strikeouts that Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana and C.J. Wilson combined for last season. But the number 926 is what jumps out at General Manager Jerry Dipoto entering Friday night's season opener against the Kansas City Royals at Angel Stadium. That's how many innings Weaver, Haren, Santana and Wilson combined to throw in 2011, a figure that, if repeated, would require the Angels get only 74 innings from their fifth starter — Jerome Williams or Garrett Richards — to reach what Dipoto considers a magic number for five-man rotations: 1,000.

The early returns on most everything the 16-6 Dodgers have done this April has been couched by, "Yeah, but they've been beating up the dregs of the National League. " OK, so mostly true. Still, the Dodgers just completed a six-game homestand against two other teams off to hot 2012 starts - - Atlanta and Washington - - and the early returns on one team's uncertainty were only encouraging. The rotation was excellent. Entering the season, the starting five consisted of an ace and four questions marks.

The Angels could have started Ervin Santana and Dan Haren on regular rest against the Seattle Mariners Wednesday night and Thursday. Or, they could have started C.J. Wilson and Santana against the Mariners. Manager Mike Scioscia chose to go with Wilson and Haren because of their success against the Mariners this season and because Santana, the most effective of those three starters right now, probably gives them a better chance of beating the Rangers in Texas on Saturday. Wilson allowed one earned run and two hits in six innings of a 4-2 win over Seattle on May 27 and has a 10-5 career record and 3.88 earned run average against the Mariners.

Look, just think of how bad it might have been. The Dodgers could easily be looking a winter of Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley both coming back from off-season surgery. Now with Billingsley looking like he will not need Tommy John surgery, the Dodgers could actually go to camp with six veteran starting pitchers -- Josh Beckett, Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang, Ted Lilly, Kershaw and Billingsley. And it still might not be enough. It shouldn't be. Lilly is coming off arthroscopic shoulder surgery and will be 37 in January.

Coach Mike Brown doesn't plan to use rookie guard Andrew Goudelock in the regular rotation much anymore. He appeared only in garbage time in the Lakers' 109-93 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday and didn't play in the Lakers' loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday. Brown said the reason has less to do with Ramon Sessions' arrival to the Lakers' backcourt and more to do with the postseason awaiting in a little more than a month. "We're shrinking it a little bit," Brown said of his rotation.  Because of that, Brown in recent games has paired Sessions with multiple guards, including Kobe Bryant and Steve Blake.

I have a small plot of land, about 6 feet by 30 feet, where I grow vegetables. Although everything tastes great, the yield is extremely low. I get about six to eight tomatoes per plant, only two or three cucumbers per plant, and so on. I am wondering: Could this be because I plant the same crops each year? Is it necessary for small-scale backyard gardeners to rotate crops? The only other reason I can think of is the lack of sun. We live in a canyon and get about four to five hours each day. Miriam Silver Beverly Hills For an answer, we turned to Yvonne Savio, manager of the UC Cooperative Extension's Common Ground Garden Program for Los Angeles County.

Remember those pitching-rich but offensively impaired Angels teams from last decade that were presumably "one big bat" away from being World Series-caliber? Up until this weekend, they were looking pretty good, weren't they? Those teams made the playoffs five times from 2004-2009. This year's club is loaded with big bats, including four -- Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo -- who hit 30 homers or more in 2012. Yet, even after a two-game, 18-run, 30-hit explosion against Detroit, these Angels might be farther away from playoff contention than any of those limp-lumbered lineups of yore.

If this keeps up - and the Angels certainly hope it will - they might have to explain to their fans why they yanked their most effective pitcher out of their starting rotation. Garrett Richards dominated the Detroit Tigers on Saturday, pitching seven innings without giving up a run or a walk. The Angels scored nine runs in the first inning - highlighted by Mike Trout's first grand slam - and rolled to a 10-0 rout at Angel Stadium. The Angels scored more runs in the first inning Saturday than they had totaled in any of their first 15 games this season.

BALTIMORE - The elements offered Hyun-Jin Ryu an opportunity to observe some American customs. After the start time of his start Friday night was pushed back because of rain, Ryu had to wait almost two hours before he was informed he wouldn't pitch that night. The Dodgers are now scheduled to play a split doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, with Ryu pitching the first game at 10 a.m. PDT and Josh Beckett the second at 4 p.m. "In Korea, this would have been called much sooner," Ryu said through an interpreter.

The rotation was not supposed to be carousel material, but here the Dodgers are, likely having to make another an unexpected early move. Making his first start of the season after Zack Greinke's fractured collarbone, Chris Capuano left Tuesday's game against the Padres after two-plus innings with a strained calf. Meanwhile, at the same time Ted Lilly was throwing five innings in a rehab start he felt he really didn't need to make. Capuano was uncertain about the severity of his strain and did not think it significant, but is scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday, which is a travel day. If nothing else, this would appear to buy the Dodgers some time in their one-too-many-starters rotation dilemma.

PHOENIX - Chris Capuano will replace injured Zack Greinke in the Dodgers' rotation and is scheduled to start Tuesday against the San Diego Padres. "It was a blow losing Zack for a little while here, but it's our job to come together and fill in and keep us moving in the right direction," Capuano said. Greinke suffered a fracture of the collarbone in his left, non-throwing shoulder Thursday when Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin charged the mound after being hit by a pitch. Greinke underwent a 90-minute procedure Saturday to stabilize the fracture and is expected to be sidelined for eight weeks.

The aftermath of the Dodgers' losing Zack Greinke to a fractured collarbone Thursday will take a while to sort out, though I would have paid good money to hear what the emotional Ned Colletti honestly had to say after the game. For now, all the Dodgers know that Greinke is headed to the disabled list. Maybe for six weeks, maybe twice that. A medical report is expected later Friday. Meanwhile, though, the Dodgers have a fifth spot in their rotation to fill. The hard reality. And with the trade of Aaron Harang , those three extra starters they had in spring camp are down to Ted Lilly and Chris Capuano.

Jerome Williams and Garrett Richards are doing a good job of making the decision of who to award the fifth rotation spot very difficult for the Angels, who will need an additional starter for an April 15 game in New York's Yankee Stadium. Williams, slowed this spring by a left hamstring strain, threw five innings and 76 pitches for Class-A Inland Empire Thursday night, allowing two runs and five hits (including a solo home run to Dodgers prospect Nick Akins), striking out four and walking two. With one more minor-league start Tuesday, Williams, who is on the disabled list, should get to six innings and 90 pitches, the range most managers deem necessary to be ready to start a season.

Jerome Williams will begin his long-awaited quest to win the Angels' fifth rotation spot Monday when the veteran right-hander, sidelined for more than three weeks because of a left hamstring strain, starts a triple-A game against the Oakland Athletics in Phoenix. Meanwhile, Williams' primary competition for the job, young right-hander Garrett Richards, will start the 1 p.m. major league game against the Colorado Rockies in Tempe Diablo Stadium. Richards, the organization's top pitching prospect, clearly has the edge--he is 3-0 with a 2.00 earned run average in three spring starts--but Manager Mike Scioscia said Williams still has time to win the job he earned late last season, when he went 4-0 with a 3.68 ERA in 10 games after an Aug. 17 promotion to the big leagues.

Garrett Richards didn't care whether he pitched out of the rotation or bullpen; he just hoped the Angels would commit to one or the other so he wouldn't have to go back and forth like he did last season, transitions that can tax the arm as well as the psyche. Richards, the organization's top starting pitching prospect, opened this season in the bullpen and emerged as a primary setup man, giving up one earned run and three hits in 41/3 innings in his first four appearances. But when Jered Weaver was put on the disabled list Tuesday because of a broken bone in his left elbow, an injury that will sideline the Angels ace for four to six weeks, the right-handed Richards was moved to the rotation and tabbed to start Saturday against the Houston Astros.