Upon further review, it seems that Garret Anderson is not two games away from tying the American League record for consecutive games with an RBI. After he drove in a run Thursday to give him an RBI in 11 consecutive games to set the Angels record, the team’s p.r. staff made an announcement that 13 is the AL record. They showed a record book that said the Royals’ Mike Sweeney and the White Sox’s Taffy Wright shared that mark.

On Friday came news that the Philadelphia A’s Tris Speaker actually has the AL record of 14 games. Here is the notification from The Elias Sports Bureau:

The Elias Sports Bureau reported that research done earlier this year reveals that the American League record for consecutive games with an RBI is 14 consecutive games set (by) Tris Speaker of the Philadelphia A’s, May 16-30 (1st game of DH), 1928 … The mark of 13, as announced last night, is not the AL record.

Here is the list of anybody who has had an RBI in at least 12 consecutive games as provided by SABR records committee:

Most Consecutive Games with an RBI
G BATTER TEAM YEAR
17 Ray Grimes CHI NL 1922
15 Mike Piazza NY NL 2000
14 George Van Haltren NY NL 1895
14 Tris Speaker PHI AL 1928
13 Nap Lajoie PHI NL 1899
13 Taft Wright CHI AL 1941
13 Mike Sweeney KC AL 1999
12 Tip O’Neill STL AA 1887
12 Tuck Turner PHI NL 1894
12 Sam Thompson PHI NL 1895
12 Ed McKean CLE NL 1896
12 Charlie Hickman NY NL 1900
12 Paul Waner PIT NL 1927
12 Mickey Cochrane DET AL 1934
12 Ripper Collins STL NL 1935
12 Joe Cronin BOS AL 1939
12 Rudy York DET AL 1940
12 Ted Williams BOS AL 1942

Vladimir Guerrero was removed from Thursday’s lineup when he experienced an arm injury during batting practice. Guerrero, who had been bothered by a sore triceps muscle in recent days according to manager Mike Scioscia, aggravated that injury while swinging a bat. The injury is not expected to be serious and Guerrero should be back in the lineup at some point during this weekend’s series against the Cleveland Indians. Precautionary X-rays were negative. The late scratch caused a number of lineup changes. Here is the new lineup without Vlad.

Matthews CF
Cabrera SS
Anderson LF
Morales DH
Izturis 3B
Kotchman 1B
Kendrick 2B
Mathis C
Willits RF

Here was the lineup before Guerrero came out:

Matthews CF
Cabrera SS
Guerrero RF
Anderson LF
Izturis SS
Morales DH
Kotchman 3B
Kendrick 2B
Mathis C

Reggie Willits will make just his second start in the past seven games today and bat out of the leadoff spot. Willits, who is on a 1-for-16 slide to drop his batting average to .292, had a three-hit game (with two doubles) as recently as Sept. 25 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Willits lost playing time after Kendry Morales was recalled on Aug. 24 and Casey Kotchman returned to the lineup a few days later from a pair of injured fingers. Morales, who is not in Wednesday’s starting lineup, has occupied the DH spot of late and has hit safely in a career-best 10 consecutive games with a .405 batting average over that stretch

While Willits will bat first, Ryan Budde will occupy the No. 9 spot in the batting order and give Jeff Mathis a much-needed day off. Budde will be making his fifth career start and first since Aug. 23. He gave the Angels a victory Aug. 20 with a walkoff hit against the Yankees.

The Angels lineup for Wednesday against A’s right-hander Joe Blanton:

Reggie Willits RF
Orlando Cabrera SS
Vladimir Guerrero DH
Garret Anderson LF
Maicer Izturis 3B
Casey Kotchman 3B
Gary Matthews Jr. CF
Howie Kendrick 2B
Ryan Budde C

Joe Saunders P

Anderson is batting .290 against Blanton in his career, Cabrera is batting .323 against him, Izturis is batting .478 in 23 at-bats and Kotchman is batting .357. Guerrero is batting just .250 against Blanton with a home run and four RBI in 28 at-bats.

So you didn’t win that $330 million Mega Millions lotter draw the other night? Not to worry. The Angels will offer you better odds. Maybe not a better prize but better odds. That’s right, the Angels are going to an online lottery to determine who gets playoff tickets. There will be no camping out at the ballpark, no lining up around the block and no hopless dialing to get into the TicketMaster system once the clock strikes that magic hour when tickets go on sale.

Here’s how it works: Registration for the lottery will begin Wednesday (Sept. 5). Fans must go to www.angelsbaseball.com to register. There will be a limit of one entery per household. The one-time registration process will count for all three potential playoff series (ALDS, ALCS, World Series). Winners get to purchase up to four tickets for the round they were selected.

In order to be eligible for all three rounds, registration must be completed by Sept. 14. If you can’t make that deadline, and the Angels advance, the next deadline is noon on Sept. 24 for the ALCS and World Series. If that deadline is missed and the Angels make the World Series, the next deadline is noon on Oct. 5.

The official lottery rules are supposed to be available at www.angelsbaseball.com, but I just did a quick check and couldn’t find a thing. Maybe it will be posted later. Good luck.

UPDATE: The registration portion of the Angels website now is available. Click here.