Series Preview: Mariners @ Angels (Finally at home)

Angels 46-45
Mariners 57-34

The Angels are above .500 only because they took 2 out of 3 from the Dodgers last week. Good news indeed. However, they only scored 8 runs the entire series and are still 5 games behind the A’s and A LOT of games behind the Mariners.

Over their last 6 games, the Mariners are only 3-3 with 20 runs scored and the Angels are also 3-3 but with only 17 runs. Much more comparable than you would think.

Overall this year the Angels are 3-6 against Seattle and have scored 42 runs to Seattle’s 42 runs.

Know your foe:

Mariners - who’s hot (last 7 days):

Denard Span .474 OBP, 1 home run
Dee Gordon .350 AVG, 1 stolen base
Kyle Seager .375 OBP, 1 home run, 5 RBIs

Weather Forecast

GAME 1

Garrett Richards (3.42 ERA) v. Mike Leake (4.11 ERA)
Tuesday, July 10th @ 7:07PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

Garrett Richards has largely overcome his early control struggles and has been putting in some good performances, including only 4 runs allowed over 14 innings against the Mariners over the past couple months. Richards was pulled after only 80 pitches in his last start but should go longer assuming he keeps the runs down.

Pitch Arsenal:

Mike Leake faced the Angels on July 4th and exited after only 4 innings with 9 hits and 4 runs allowed (3 earned). Leake gave up a lot of doubles in that game including to Pujols, Valbuena, Simmons, and Trout.

Pitch Arsenal:

Verdict: The Angels have some momentum going into this series and they beat up on Leake last week, so why not do it again?

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GAME 2

Jaime Baria (3.39 ERA) v. Marco Gonzales (3.64 ERA)
Wednesday, July 11th @ 7:07PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

Jaime Barria took the loss when he faced the Mariners last week, but only allowed 2 runs over 5.1 innings. Barria has allowed more than 2 runs only twice in his 12 starts this season.

Pitch Arsenal:

Gonzales beat the Angels last week with only 1 run allowed over 6 innings. The Angel got to Gonzales the previous two times they faced him with 7 runs over 11 innings.

Pitch Arsenal:

Verdict: With two pretty reliable pitchers on the mound, this one could go either direction.

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GAME 3

Tyler Skaggs (likely) v. Felix Hernandez (5.13 ERA)
Thursday, July 12th @ 7:07PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

The Angels have yet to announce a starter for Thursday which is mostly due to the fact they are waiting to see if Tyler Skaggs can pitch. Skaggs threw a bullpen session on Sunday which went well. He had suffered an abductor strain on June 30th. Skaggs faced the Mariners on May 5th and held them to 2 runs over 5.1 innings. His ERA last month was a minuscule 0.84.

Hernandez is a bit removed from his days as “King”, yet he hasn’t allowed more than 3 runs over his past 5 starts. He faced the Angels once this year and they smacked him around for 5 runs over 5.2 innings.

Pitch Arsenal:

Verdict: If Skaggs takes the mound, the Angels could have an edge in the finale of the series.

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Overall Verdict: According to FiveThirtyEight, the Angels have the edge in game 1, even odds in game 2 and are behind in game 3 but that’s because no starter is announced. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope for an Angels series victory.

Current Standings