ALCS NOTES

CHICAGO – If you know anything about baseball, you know Esteban Yan for Bartolo Colon is not a fair trade-off.

But Colon, who exited Monday night’s ALDS Game 5 against the Yankees with an inflamed shoulder in the second inning, was left off the Angels’ ALCS roster. In his place, Yan was added.

“Any time you lose a guy that’s in the Cy Young running and probably should win it, it’s going to affect a ballclub,” said Jarrod Washburn, tonight’s expected Game 2 starter.

On Monday, Colon worked a scoreless first but grimaced during an at-bat to Robinson Cano. He took some time to stretch the shoulder, but after three warm-up pitches knew he couldn’t continue. The 32-year-old made 33 regular-season starts, going 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA.

“You have to know Bartolo; he’s a horse,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “This guy doesn’t complain about anything.

“When he says something is bothering him, you know it’s significant. I think as soon as he came out . . . it was pretty ominous and pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to help us in this series.”

Colon will undergo further tests this week.

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Scioscia strongly argued his team shouldn’t have even been playing at U.S. Cellular Field last night. But a rainout pushed their five-game ALDS a day longer than normal.

The players got to their hotel here around 6:30 a.m.

“Should the game have been pushed back? Absolutely,” Scioscia said before first pitch. “But that’s not our call.

“If they schedule these games at 1 in the morning, we’ll show up to play.”

Vladimir Guerrero was the DH and was not running the bases well. He went 0-for-4 with an RBI. Juan Rivera played right.

The Angels pitched out in the fifth inning while Scott Podsednik was running. He was erased at second. Coincidence or not, Angels bench coach Joe Maddon is considered one of the best in the business at stealing opponents’ signs.

When the White Sox pitched out in the eighth, catcher A.J. Pierzynski hesitated before throwing, and Chone Figgins stole second.

If Jarrod Washburn can’t go tonight, reliever Kevin Gregg will probably get the nod.