August 19th Game #127 Preview: Angels @ Rangers

Angels (62-64) @ Rangers (60-64)

This will be a battle for 3rd place. The Angels and the Rangers are just separated by one game, with just over a month to go. To add insult to injury, the Rangers just inducted Josh Hamilton into their team Hall of Fame, so...let’s win, okay?

Weather Forecast

GAME 1

(L) Dillon Peters (3.38) v. (L) Kolby Allard (4.50 ERA)
Monday, Aug 19 @ 5:05PM

Summary:

The Angels have had success against Texas pitchers named Colby/Kolby. Most recently, the Angels feasted off Colby Lewis, and Mike Trout especially has hit multiple home runs off the now-retired starter. Hopefully the trend continues with Kolby Allard, a top prospect who has pitched reasonably well in his two MLB starts thus far. Just 22, the Rangers picked him up for reliever Chris Martin at the trade deadline from the Braves. Fastball sits 92-93, power changeup, solid curveball. If he throws a changeup to Mike Trout, expect it to go a long, long way.

Dillon Peters has been a nice find for the Angels. He’s now up to 0.8 bWAR on the year, and he’s coming off three straight quality outings (two QS, and the third was that impressive 7.2 inning performance in Cleveland). He’ll look to continue his mojo against a scuffling Texas team.

Current Standings

Notes/Credits:
(Pitch tracking data from baseballsavant.mlb.com)
(Splits from FanGraphs Splits Tool and Baseball Reference)
(Standings/odds from fivethirtyeight.com)