In trouble from the start?

Spend enough time in a baseball clubhouse and you’re bound to hear it, from a manager whose team gets off to a rocky start, a hitter in an April slump, a pitcher who loses his first few decisions.

“It’s not how you start,” they say, “it’s how you finish.”

Unless, of course, you were the 2006 Angels, who lost 10 of 12 games from April to early May and eight of nine in mid-May to fall to 17-28 on May 22, 6 1/2 games back in the American League West.

That team went 54-29 after July 1, the best record in the major leagues in that span, but played catch-up all summer and finished two games behind division-champion Oakland, out of the playoffs.

“April is just as important as any month of the season,” Angels pitcher Kelvim Escobar said. “I remember 2006, we started horribly, and we had the best record for the last four months, but we could never catch Oakland. You don’t want to start the season like that.”

The Angels, hit by a barrage of injuries this spring, could face just such a predicament early in 2008. Many think they’ll win the AL West, but the road to their fourth division title in five years could begin with an uphill climb.

The Angels, who open the season Monday night at Minnesota, have a much tougher April schedule than Seattle, the only AL West team expected to challenge them.

The Mariners play 20 games against second-division Texas, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Oakland and eight games against playoff contenders Cleveland and the Angels.

The Angels play 15 games against contenders Cleveland, Seattle, Boston and Detroit -- they face the Red Sox and Tigers on the road -- and only 14 games against second-division Minnesota, Texas, Kansas City and Oakland.

And while the Mariners bolstered their rotation by adding ace left-hander Erik Bedard and right-hander Carlos Silva, the Angels will play the first month to six weeks without ace John Lackey and possibly the entire season without Escobar, a pair that combined for 37 wins last season.

Escobar, who has a shoulder tear, will decide in mid-April whether to undergo season-ending arthroscopic surgery. If he doesn’t have surgery, the earliest he would return would be June.

Lackey, who went 4-0 with an 0.58 earned-run average against Seattle last season, will be out until at least May because of a triceps strain.

“That’s a big blow for them,” Mariners pitcher Jarrod Washburn told the Seattle Times. “That’s their two best pitchers, and two of the best pitchers in the game. They’ll be hard to replace, so hopefully they get off to a bit of a slow start. If we miss John twice because of this, it can’t hurt our chances.”

Asked if the Mariners have closed the gap on them, Angels pitcher Joe Saunders said: “I think so. They have a bona-fide No. 1 in Bedard. They’re going to put a little heat on us.”

Others expressed little concern.

“I think it would present more of a challenge if [Lackey and Escobar] were both gone for half or three-quarters of a season,” said outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., who is recovering from an ankle sprain. “This organization has a lot of depth.”

And if the Angels struggle out of the blocks and fall three, four or five games behind Seattle?

“We could get down 10 games and it wouldn’t matter to me,” Matthews said. “This team has enough experienced veterans who truly know how long the season is.

“We know there are going to be peaks and valleys, but at some point, the numbers won’t lie. This team is too good to not be where it should be at the end of the year.”

Many questioned the Angels’ trading of veteran shortstop Orlando Cabrera for pitcher Jon Garland in November, but Tony Reagins’ first move as Angels general manager now looks prescient.

Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis both had outstanding springs and appear capable of filling the shortstop job, and Garland will be a cornerstone in a rotation that hopes to keep the team in contention until Lackey and, possibly, Escobar return.

With Lackey and Escobar, the rotation, which would include Jered Weaver, Garland and Ervin Santana or Saunders, is as deep and talented as any. With a healthy Lackey but without Escobar, it should still be very competitive.

Without the two right-handers, the rotation isn’t as imposing as Seattle’s, which features Bedard, Felix Hernandez, Silva, Washburn and Miguel Batista. Bedard and Hernandez combined for a 27-12 record and 386 strikeouts last season.

“I won 16 games last year. I led the team in wins. And I’m the fifth starter?” Batista recently told USA Today. “How many teams can say their fifth starter finished in the top 10 in wins last year?”

The Mariners, who challenged the Angels in 2007 before fading in late August and September, also have a solid bullpen, led by closer J.J. Putz. The Angels will open without setup man Scot Shields, who has a forearm strain.

The Angels should be far better offensively, with Vladimir Guerrero, new center fielder Torii Hunter, Garret Anderson, Matthews, Chone Figgins, Howie Kendrick and Casey Kotchman.

But the 2005 Angels had great pitching and weak hitting and made it to the AL Championship Series, so dominant pitching cannot be underestimated.

“We know Seattle is better this year, they have five good starters,” Escobar said. “If you take two good pitchers out of any rotation in the big leagues, it’s going to be tough, it’s going to hurt you in some way.”

For the Mariners to overcome the Angels, they must beat them in the heat of a pennant race.

The Angels went 13-6 against Seattle last season and swept a three-game series in Safeco Field in late August, outscoring the Mariners, 24-8, to increase their lead from two to five games.

“They were all pumped up going into that series, saying things in the paper, like, ‘It’s our time,’ ” Escobar said. “Then we swept them, and it was like, ‘Now what are you going to say?’

“You have to play the game. . . . We’ve been to the playoffs three of the last four years, so we know what it takes to compete and handle situations.”

But Escobar may be more cheerleader than factor this season, and that could hurt the Angels’ chances.

“Starting pitching depth is so critical, it’s so scarce, that’s why you’re always trying to get your organizational depth chart to eight, nine, 10 guys,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We’re fortunate in that we have a lot of young arms that have come up . . . but that depth is certainly being tested.”

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