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Series Preview: Mariners @ Angels (Finish them!)

Angels look to play spoiler and dash the Mariner's wildcard hopes

By Jessica DeLine
Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

If it feels like we just played the Mariners, it's because we just them 8 days ago (in the series where that jerk Kyler Seager hit Shoemaker in the head).  The Angels are spending the entire month of September (and 2 days in October), playing against AL West teams - aside from a 4 game set against Toronto starting on Thursday.  The Angels will be facing the exact same pitchers they faced in their last series against the Mariners.

The Angels won the last series and the season series is currently split at 8 apiece.  The Halos have yet to win a series at home against the invaders from the Pacific NW and have lost one series and split the other so far in 2016.  Seattle is currently fighting for a wild card spot in which they are 3.5 games back, and a series loss to the Angels could seriously put their run in jeopardy since they are running out of games.

Seattle is playing like a team with purpose and they are riding a 5 game winning streak and have only lost 2 games of their last 10.

Biggest question: Can the Walker ownage continue?

Game 1

Ricky Nolasco vs. Ariel Miranda
Monday, September 12th, 2016 @ 7:05PM
Ricky Nolasco v. Mariners (2016)
IP H BAA K HR ERA
11.1 11 .250 10 2 4.05
Ariel Miranda v. Angels (2016)
IP H BAA K HR ERA
11 8 .211 7 2 5.73
Players/Stats to watch:
Mike Trout v. Ariel Miranda (2016)
AB H RBI HR BA
1 1 3 1 1.000
Robinson Cano v. Ricky Nolasco (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
9 4 2 1 .444
Nelson Cruz v. Ricky Nolasco (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
12 4 4 3 .333


Nolasco threw a complete game shutout against the Reds and turned around to throw 7 innings of two hit ball in his followup start.  These two games were against two of the worst teams in baseball (Reds and A's), but still impressive nonetheless.  In 7 starts as an Angels, Nolasco has yet to go less than 5.1 innings and he has 3 quality starts.

Miranda beat the Angels last time they faced, despite giving up 4 runs. Trout and Marte both went deep off Miranda who benefited from facing Oberholtzer who gave up 5 runs in 1 inning of work.  Miranda has now started 6 big league games in his career and ha a 4.19 ERA in those starts.

VERDICT: Tough game to call and largely depends on if Nolasco can pull off three goods starts in a row.

Game 2
Alex Meyer vs. Taijuan Walker
Tuesday, September 13th, 2016 @ 7:05PM

Meyer is the only guy on the team that Weaver literally looks up to

Taijuan Walker v. Angels (2016)
IP H BAA K HR ERA
4.2 13 .500 1 4 23.57
Players/Stats to watch:

Mike Trout vs. Taijuan Walker (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
11 9 6 3 .818

Mike Trout owns Taijuan Walker perhaps more than he owns Felix Hernandez.  9 for 11 with 3 homeruns is a rather ridiculous stat.  Walker has been destroyed by the Angels in 2 starts this year, lasting only 4 innings following by .2 in his last start vs. the Halos.  Walker has a 9.83 ERA since July 5th in 6 starts and has given up 9 homeruns in those games.
Alex Meyer had a decent first start at as Halo allowing just 1 hit over 3.1 innings.  Unfortunately he also walked 4 and threw 68 pitches.  All eyes will continue to be on him as we see what he can do against the Mariners and hopefully log at least 4 innings.
VERDICT: I'm going Angels here in light of their Walker ownage and his troubles since early July.
Game 3
Tyler Skaggs vs. Hisashi Iwakuma
Wednesday, September 14th, 2016 @ 7:05PM
Tyler Skaggs v. Mariners (2016)
IP H BAA K HR ERA
14.2 23 .343 16 4 6.97
Hisashi Iwakuma v. Angels (2016)
IP H BAA K HR ERA
28.1 29 .276 12 6 3.49
Players/Stats to watch:

Jett Bandy v. Hisashi Iwakuma (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
6 4 1 1 .667

Yunel Escobar v. Hisashi Iwakuma (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
17 8 0 1 .471

Robinson Cano v. Tyler Skaggs (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
12 6 3 0 .500

Franklin Gutierrez v. Tyler Skaggs (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
8 5 4 2 .625

Kyle Seager v. Tyler Skaggs (Last 5 years)
AB H RBI HR BA
13 6 1 1 .462
Skaggs has thrown 6 innings in each of his last 3 starts and allowed only 5 total runs while striking out 21.  He's perhaps starting to get comfortable back on the mound and hopefully will at least equal his Sept 3rd start against the Mariners when he allowed 3 runs over 6 innings (though he gave up two dingers).
Iwakuma lost to the Angels his last 3 starts despite allowing only 9 ER in those 3 games - two of which were quality starts.  His shortest start against the Angels in 2016 has been 6.1 innings so he may outlast Skaggs depenidng on how efficient Skaggs is with his pitch count.  Iwakuma has been better in the second half and has an ERA of 3.44 since the break
VERDICT: Tough matchup here that may depend on the Angels getting Iwakuma out early.

OVERALL VERDICT: The Angels have a shot at 2 wins here, but probably not a sweep.

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