Rotation Is a Question Mark

Huddled in a red sweatshirt, his shoulders pulled high around his ears, Jarrod Washburn watched the Angels beat the Yankees on Monday night from the Angel clubhouse, then listened as his teammates danced and shouted and shot corks about the room.

He smiled sadly as the party dispersed, the playoffs having gone on without him, the strep throat that cost him a start and unbalanced the Angel rotation still plain in his posture.

“I’ve been quarantined,” he said, “which is probably a good thing.”

The rainout in New York, Washburn’s illness, Bartolo Colon’s aching shoulder and a plane-flight turnaround from the end of the American League division series to tonight’s beginning of the league championship series has left a thin Angel rotation. The Angels do not expect Colon, who left in the middle of his sixth batter Monday night, to pitch in the AL championship series.

Paul Byrd will pitch Game 1 against Chicago’s Jose Contreras. After that, the Angels will start taking volunteers.

As they boarded their flight to Chicago and their second championship series in four years, Angel coaches had sketched a tentative plan: John Lackey in Game 3 on Friday and Ervin Santana in Game 4 on Saturday. Wednesday’s Game 2 was still a mystery, the options ranging from the hopeful (Washburn) to the desperate (Joe Saunders) to the most likely (group effort, perhaps beginning with Kevin Gregg).

Colon will be examined today and the Angels then will decide whether to include him on the championship series roster. If the news is bad for Colon, or even vague, and Washburn is ailing, Manager Mike Scioscia would probably carry 11 pitchers against the White Sox, dropping Colon and adding relievers Esteban Yan and Jason Christiansen. They also would have to remove a position player, probably Jeff DaVanon.

Washburn is hoping for a full recovery by Wednesday, but his expression revealed his doubt. He ate for the first time in three days Monday, and that was only a few sips of soup.

For the veteran of eight major league seasons, whose last postseason pitch didn’t go so well, the thought of missing these games is distressing, like falling ill on your birthday.

“This is worse than that,” he said. “I’d take being sick on my birthday any day. Birthdays, you get to have a few more.

“Hopefully, I’ll get some strength back quickly. I want nothing more than to go out and help them. I’d have given anything to help them beat the Yankees.”

They held the Yankees off without him. The White Sox have had three days off, however, while the Angels played, traveled across the country, played again and then traveled again. In Chicago, Manager Ozzie Guillen is thinking of ideas to keep his players fresh -- Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia will follow Contreras -- as the Angels picked through the clubhouse looking for live arms.

Kelvim Escobar, once a starter and now a critical part of getting the ball to Francisco Rodriguez, said he’d try if asked to start Wednesday.

“To be honest, I think I can do it,” said Escobar, who piecemealed seven innings against the Yankees, 1 1/3 of them in Game 5. “It’s been a long time since I threw a lot of pitches. [But] if they gave me the ball, I’ll take it and go as far as I can.”

After running to the AL West title, gaining home-field advantage for the division series on the final day of the regular season, taking the Yankees to five games and finishing them there, the Angels figured something good would come of their pitching conundrum. Somebody will show up, somebody will take the ball, and they’d all play from there.

“We’re going to have to pull together,” pitching coach Bud Black said. “Especially in a seven-game series, you don’t do it with a few pitchers; you do it with a whole staff.”

Black said they’ll gauge the series, and Washburn’s part in it, as the week progresses.

After Byrd, bench coach Joe Maddon said, “It’s going to be who feels good.”

Asked to clarify if he meant “who” feels good or “what” feels good, Maddon smiled and said, “Both. I don’t think we have any major concerns, because the whole objective was to win tonight. We’ll just piece it together as it goes.”