Halos Head To Florida To Take On The Marlins: Series Preview

Fresh off of taking 2 of three from the Mets the Angels head to Florida to battle the Marlins in a 3 game set. The offense looked a little better in the 3 games in Queens totaling 12 runs in the series. As we predicted Vernon Wells was a major catalyst going totaling 4 hits including a home run and 4 RBI during the series. The Angels look to win their 3rd straight series as they face a Marlins team that has struggled as of late losing 10 straight games- forcing Manager Edwin Rodriguez to turn in his hat.

Lets take a look at the series at a glance.

Pitching Matchups

Game 1: Jered Weaver (8-4, 2.06 ERA) vs. Anibal Sanchez (6-1 , 2.84 ERA)
Game 2: Ervin Santana (3-7, 4.25 ERA ) vs. Javier Vazquez ( 3-7, ERA 6.85)
Game 3: Joel Pineiro (3-3, 3.92 ERA ) vs. Brad Hand ( 0-3, ERA 3.45)

Marlin To Watch

With Hanley Ramirez struggling and Mike Stanton likely out for the first game or two of the series Gaby Sanchez is easily the Marlins most dangerous player. Sanchez has enjoyed a productive 2011 posting a .305/.383/.502 slash line with 12 home runs and 44 RBI’s.

Holy Halo

Erick Aybar has quietly struggled of late going just 2 for his last 16 dropping his season average t0 .277. So why will Aybar click? I fully believe the real Erick Aybar is closer to the guy we saw in 2009 rather than 2010, therefore he is due to start picking it up. Also Scioscia appears to have settled on Aybar hitting either leadoff or second which suits his skill set better and hopefully will provide him with some stability.