Surprisingly the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim finished their last series on a high note against the Blue Jays as they won the last two games, but face an even tougher challenge with Texas in town.
The Angels begin the week with a series against the playoff-bound Texas Rangers, where Anaheim can play the spoiler card or continue to give momentum to the 1st place Rangers. Let’s take a look at Monday’s starters.
Rangers lefty Martin Perez (10-10, 4.20 ERA) will go against Angels, right-hander Jhoulys Chacin (5-8, 5.43 ERA). Now Perez’s record and ERA may seem winnable , but he’s been red-hot as of late. Perez recorded quality starts in each of his past three outings and is 2-0 with a 1.96 ERA in that span. The start will be his 31st of the season, which is the most of any Texas pitcher and a career high.
Even with the impressive few starts as of late for Perez, The Angels are 8-8 against the Rangers this year, and they have won 20 of their past 35 meetings against Texas. Anaheim’s Monday night starter Chacin also knows the Rangers quite well. He has faced Texas three times this year and has allowed four earned runs in 12 innings.
He along with Perez, also has sported excellent outings in the past starts. Chacin has allowed a total of one run in 11 2/3 innings over his past two starts. According to Angels rookie catcher Juan Graterol, he believes Chacin is improving.
“He’s doing great, He’s always ahead in the count, and he throws everything for strikes.”
As for Tuesday and Wednesday night starters, it may get ugly quick for the Angels. Tuesday the Angels will be sending Daniel Wright (0-3, 7.04 ERA) to the hill against Texas’ A.J. Griffin (7-4, 4.78 ERA) The Angels claimed right-hander Daniel Wright off waivers from the Reds in early September and has yet to produce.
For the final game in the series, Texas will be sending their ace Cole Hamels (14-5, 3.42 ERA) against the legend and 70 MPH fastball thrower Jered Weaver (11-12, 5.17 ERA). As of late the Angels offense has only consisted of Trout and Pujols, so the only way it gets pretty in Anaheim is if the team backs up both Wright and Weaver the last nights because long story short, they GONNA NEED IT.