Series Preview: Rangers @ Angels (Finally Home)

It’s been rough. Very rough. Five games into the season and the Angels are averaging around 2 runs per game. That makes it hard to tally up wins even if you had a guy like Jacab deGrom starting every day.

Coming home is a good feeling. You know what I’m talking about. Say you’ve been gone on a long vacation and as great as it was, there is always something about the coziness of your own bed. Opening your own fridge. It’s no different for baseball players and the Angels really need to take that coming home feeling out on a lessor team to get some fire burning in this offense.

The Rangers are coming off back to back series wins to start the season, besting the Cubs and Astros in 3 games sets and scoring (also giving up) 34 runs over those 6 games.

Know your foe:

Rangers - who’s hot (Japan Series):

Elvis Andrus 1HR, 3RBI, .429 OBP
Asdrubal Cabrerra 3HR, 7RBI, .350 OBP

Shawn Kelly 3IP, 3K, 0.00 ERA, .111 BAA
Jose Leclerc 3.1IP, 1K, 0.00 ERA, .100 BAA, 2 saves

Weather Forecast

GAME 1

(R)Matt Harvey (3.00 ERA) v. (R)Edinson Volquez (9.00 ERA)
Thursday, April 4th @ 7:07PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

Matt Harvey is coming off a pretty impressive start where he tossed 6 innings of 2 run ball. He did walk 3 and only struck out 1. Harvey has not yet faced the Rangers in his career.

Pitch Data:

Summary:

Edinson gave up 4 runs over his 4 inning start agains the Cubs. He hasn’t pitched all that well in the limited times he’s seen the Angels and both Albert Pujols and Jonathan Lucroy have smashed off him.

Pitch Data:

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GAME 2

(R)Felix Pena (9.82 ERA) v. (R)Lance Lynn (11.12 ERA)
Friday, April 5th @ 7:07PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

Felix Pena didn’t have the start he had hoped for to start the season with 4 hits and 4 runs allowed over 3.2 innings. But have no fear! He faced the Rangers twice in September last year and held them to 3 total runs over 13 innings of work.

Pitch Data:

Summary:

Lance Lynn made it through 5.2 innings in his 2018 debut but gave up 10 hits and 7 ER in the process. The Angels faced him twice last year when he was with the Twins - winning one game and losing the other.

Pitch Data:

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GAME 3

(L)Tyler Skaggs( (4.42 ERA) v. (L)Drew Smyly (3.00 ERA)
Saturday, April 6th @ 1:05PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

Tyler Skaggs allowed only 2 runs in his first outing but also only lasted 4.2 innings throwing 86 pitches in the process. Not exactly the picture of efficiency. Those 86 pitches were thrown with only 1 walk. Here’s hoping he can be more effective with his pitches in this start.

Pitch Data:

Summary:

This is like the battle of pitch nibblers. Drew Smyly threw 73 pitches over only 3 innings and that was with just 2 walks in his first start. If he and Skaggs both keep it up at this rate they could throw a combined 140-150 pitches or so in the first 3 or 4 innings in this game. Ouch. Despite that high pitch count and 3 innings of work, Smyly only gave up 1 run to the Astros. Note that Smyly hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2016. He’s a lefty though so don’t expect much from the Angels offense.

Pitch Data:

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GAME 4

(R)Chris Stratton (8.31 ERA) v. (R)Shelby Miller (4.91 ERA)
Sunday, April 7th @ 1:07PM

Pitcher vs. Batters

Notable Stats

Summary:

Summary:

Can Chris Stratton part 2 be better than part 1? Let’s hope so. Stratton did settle down a bit after a bad first inning but he gave up 4 ER over 4.1 innings in his Angels debut. The Rangers offense has been pretty good so we’ll see if he can keep them at bay.

Pitch Data:

Summary:

Like most of the Rangers pitching staff, Shelby Miller’s first start didn’t go so well. He allowed 2 runs and 6 hits over 3.2 innings. He also walked 5 batters. Miller has definitely has some control issues the past few years with walk rates in the 4.5 to 4.9 range per 9 innings in 2017 and 2018. Maybe the swing happy Angels can practice some patience in this one.

Pitch Data:

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Overall Verdict: The Angels offense has been struggled in a huge way but this lackluster Texas pitching combined with a home stand may be just what they need to get moving. If they don’t take at least 3 of these games it’s going to be a bad sign because Texas just isn’t that good of a team and they are rebuilding.

Current Standings

Notes/Credits:
(ERA stats are from last season)
(Pitch tracking data from baseballsavant.mlb.com)
(Last 5 year splits from FanGraphs Splits Tool)