August 27th Game #134 Preview: Rangers @ Angels

Rangers (64-68) @ Angels (63-70)

If you are on team tank, I guess you are hoping the Rangers sweep this mini 2 game series. The Rangers are currently ahead of the Angels in the standings which means the Angels are ahead of the Rangers for a 1st round pick next year. Last week in Arlington, the Angels managed only 1 win in 4 games, but their 3 losses were all only 1 run games.

GAME 1

(L) Andrew Heaney (4.31) v. (L) Mike Minor (3.17 ERA)
Tuesday, Aug 27th @ 7:07PM

Summary:

Andrew Heaney has been a different pitcher since the beginning of July. Not only did he blow through the Ranger last week with 14Ks and 1 run over 8 innings, Heaney has a 2.86 ERA over his last 5 starts along with 34 Ks in 28 innings.

Mike Minor is supposed to be good, right? Well, last week the Angels knocked him around for 10 hits and 7 runs (6 earned) over 5.2 innings. Minor has an 8.10 over his last two starts against the Angels, so he sure hasn’t been fooling them lately. Overall, Minor has a 4.75 ERA since the start of July.

Current Standings

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