The Angels face long odds in making the postseason, but their schedule the next seven days features home games against teams with even worse records, so if there’s a week to make up ground, this is it.
The Diamondbacks are first up, with three games in Anaheim beginning Tuesday night. Arizona has lost eight consecutive series, and is 4-20 over the last four weeks.
Entering Tuesday, the Angels have a 2.9-percent chance of making the postseason per FanGraphs, and 2.5% per Baseball Prospectus. It’s definitely a long shot.
Angels-D-backs schedule
Date | Time | Pitchers | TV |
---|---|---|---|
Date | Time | Pitchers | TV |
Tue, Sep 15 | 6:40 p.m. | Teheran v. Bumgarner | FSW/FS1/MLBN* |
Wed, Sep 16 | 6:40 p.m. | Bundy v. Smith | FSW/ESPN |
Thu, Sep 17 | 1:10 p.m. | Canning v. Young | FSW/MLBN* |
The path to October is thanks to a surprisingly weak American League West, with four losing teams all trailing the A’s. The Astros, currently in second place, losing nine of their last 11, gives at least a glimmer of hope to not only the Angels, who trail Houston by 3½ games, but also Seattle, sitting just 1½ games back of Houston.
The presence of the Mariners in the race throws another hurdle in front of the Angels, but they have to hold up their end of the bargain before worrying about what other teams do.
On the flip side, the Angels elimination number is 10. If any combination of Angels losses and Astros wins reach that number, October dreams are dead. Perhaps they already are, just not technically so, yet.
Julio Teheran gets the call in Tuesday’s series opener, facing off against Madison Bumgarner for the D-backs.
Game info
Time: 6:40 p.m. PT
TV: Fox Sports West, FS1, MLB Network (out of market)