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The Guardians limp home after hitting a speed bump in Atlanta and Houston, losing four of six. They have lost five of their last eight and are 1.5 games ahead of KC in the Central. Four teams are within 2.5 games of the lead with only the White Sox being out of it. The AL Central is the only division in baseball with four teams over .500.
The Twins have won 10 straight; 7 against the hapless White Sox and 3 against the Angels. I wonder how it feels to go 0-7 in ten days against the same team. Ask the White Sox. By the way, the Twins beat the Angels 32-13 in that series.
So the Angels come to town for three games with a record of 11-20 overall and 7-9 on the road. They are in a death spiral having lost 11 of 13 and were outscored 79-46 in those games. Mike Trout went down with a torn meniscus this week and of course Ohtani has moved on to greener pastures.
Their starting and backup third basemen are also out with injuries, that being Anthony Rendon and Miguel Sano.
The Angels still have a few bats. Taylor Ward is hitting .278/.805. Jo Adell is off to a good start at .290/.903, but in only 62 at-bats. Luis Rengifo is hitting an impressive .326/.841. Trout was hitting .220/.867 before his injury.
The Angels rank 18th in scoring at 4.23 runs per game. But in their last 13 games they averaged just 3.5 runs per game. They rank in the 13th-17th range in OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, batting average, ISO, and wRC+. They’ve been about average offensively, but below average the last couple of weeks.
The Angels dig the long ball, ranking 9th in home run percentage. But they’re 23rd in strikeout percentage and 25th in walk percentage, so it looks like they pay a price for those big swings. Trout had 10 of their 34 home runs so with him out their HR percentage drops from 9th to 19th.
The Angels rank 25th in base running and 24th in batting average with RISP, so they’re not good at scoring once they’re on base. As a team they’re hitting .228 with RISP.
Pitching is their big problem as they rank 28th in team ERA, ahead of only the White Sox and Rockies. They rank 25th in WHIP and 26th in opponents’ OPS. Their bullpen ranks 26th in WAR and 27th in ERA. Fangraphs ranks the Angels 28th defensively. Bad pitching and bad defense is not a good combination.
So bottom line is they have a few good hitters but are average offensively and with Trout out they should be below average. They suck at pitching, defense, base running, and hitting with RISP.
The Guardians have some key players slumping right now and hopefully this pitching staff is what they need to get back on track. Josh Naylor is 3-for-25, Jose is 0-for-10, and Freeman is 1-for-14. Bo Naylor is hitting .176 and is 0-for-9 with five strikeouts. Those are four every day players that are a mess at the dish right now.
Tonight’s opener features Tanner Bibee against Jose Soriano. Bibee is 2-0, 3.45 and is coming off the best start of any Guardian pitcher this season, holding the Braves to two hits over seven scoreless innings.
Soriano is a 25-year-old right-hander with 40 relief appearances and 4 starts since he came up last year. He is 0-4 with a 4.76 ERA. He had two good starts in a row where he went 11 innings, allowing 4 hits, one run, 8 walks, and 13 Ks against Tampa and Cincy. But his last start he got taken out in the 2nd inning after allowing four runs.
Soriano has a control problem (14 walks in 22.2 innings) so the Guardians need to be patient.
Ben Lively goes against LHP Reid Detmers (3-2, 3.12) on Saturday and Cookie squares off against RHP Griffin Canning (1-3, 7.45) on Sunday.
These teams will play their final season series in LA in three weeks.
The Twins have won 10 straight; 7 against the hapless White Sox and 3 against the Angels. I wonder how it feels to go 0-7 in ten days against the same team. Ask the White Sox. By the way, the Twins beat the Angels 32-13 in that series.
So the Angels come to town for three games with a record of 11-20 overall and 7-9 on the road. They are in a death spiral having lost 11 of 13 and were outscored 79-46 in those games. Mike Trout went down with a torn meniscus this week and of course Ohtani has moved on to greener pastures.
Their starting and backup third basemen are also out with injuries, that being Anthony Rendon and Miguel Sano.
The Angels still have a few bats. Taylor Ward is hitting .278/.805. Jo Adell is off to a good start at .290/.903, but in only 62 at-bats. Luis Rengifo is hitting an impressive .326/.841. Trout was hitting .220/.867 before his injury.
The Angels rank 18th in scoring at 4.23 runs per game. But in their last 13 games they averaged just 3.5 runs per game. They rank in the 13th-17th range in OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, batting average, ISO, and wRC+. They’ve been about average offensively, but below average the last couple of weeks.
The Angels dig the long ball, ranking 9th in home run percentage. But they’re 23rd in strikeout percentage and 25th in walk percentage, so it looks like they pay a price for those big swings. Trout had 10 of their 34 home runs so with him out their HR percentage drops from 9th to 19th.
The Angels rank 25th in base running and 24th in batting average with RISP, so they’re not good at scoring once they’re on base. As a team they’re hitting .228 with RISP.
Pitching is their big problem as they rank 28th in team ERA, ahead of only the White Sox and Rockies. They rank 25th in WHIP and 26th in opponents’ OPS. Their bullpen ranks 26th in WAR and 27th in ERA. Fangraphs ranks the Angels 28th defensively. Bad pitching and bad defense is not a good combination.
So bottom line is they have a few good hitters but are average offensively and with Trout out they should be below average. They suck at pitching, defense, base running, and hitting with RISP.
The Guardians have some key players slumping right now and hopefully this pitching staff is what they need to get back on track. Josh Naylor is 3-for-25, Jose is 0-for-10, and Freeman is 1-for-14. Bo Naylor is hitting .176 and is 0-for-9 with five strikeouts. Those are four every day players that are a mess at the dish right now.
Tonight’s opener features Tanner Bibee against Jose Soriano. Bibee is 2-0, 3.45 and is coming off the best start of any Guardian pitcher this season, holding the Braves to two hits over seven scoreless innings.
Soriano is a 25-year-old right-hander with 40 relief appearances and 4 starts since he came up last year. He is 0-4 with a 4.76 ERA. He had two good starts in a row where he went 11 innings, allowing 4 hits, one run, 8 walks, and 13 Ks against Tampa and Cincy. But his last start he got taken out in the 2nd inning after allowing four runs.
Soriano has a control problem (14 walks in 22.2 innings) so the Guardians need to be patient.
Ben Lively goes against LHP Reid Detmers (3-2, 3.12) on Saturday and Cookie squares off against RHP Griffin Canning (1-3, 7.45) on Sunday.
These teams will play their final season series in LA in three weeks.
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