Angels Head To Baltimore To Square Off With The Orioles

I haven’t been to Camden Yards yet but I will one day probably this season. The Angels on the other hand are there now – and they will open a 3 game set against the Orioles tonight as Ervin Santana takes the bump opposing a dude who is a suspect in the shooting death of his cousin in the Dominican Republic Alfredo Simon.
The O’s have struggled again this season leaving a lot of questions for Oriole faithful to ponder. As we saw last week against the A’s – a struggling team can still be dangerous. It will be important for the Halos to generate some offense as neither Haren or Weaver will make an apperance this series. They start the night 3 games back of Texas ( who faces a hot Toronto club) so they may have a chance to gain some ground if they can take care of business.
It wont beat easy though. The Angels enter tonight’s game having lost the last 6 games against the fighting Showalters.
Lets check out the series at a glance:
Pitching Matchups
- Game 1: Ervin Santana ( 4-8 , 3.84 ERA) vs. Alfredo Simon ( 2-2, 4.36 ERA)
- Game 2: Joel Pineiro (5-4 , 4.58 ERA) vs. Brad Bergersen ( 1-6, 5.76 ERA)
- Game 3: Tyler Chatwood ( 5-6, 3.71 ERA) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (4-13, 4.35 ERA)
Oriole To Watch
- Nick Markakis is quitely putting together a solid season in 2011. His .290/.340/.392 slash line isn’t spectacular but he’s really picked it up of late having raised his average a full 3o pints since June 18th when he was hitting just .260. Ervin Santana should beware in particular as Markakis has gone 10 for 27 with five doubles and three homers off the Halos Friday night starter.
Holy Halo
- Well this is tough – no Angel has been particularly hot of late outside of maybe Kendrick and Aybar, so I’ll go off the grid and pick Mark Trumbo. I’m really digging Trumbo’s approach at the plate right now. He appears to be letting the ball travel and has picked up a few hits the opposite way lately. This should free up Mark to drive pitches middle in with greater regularity and hopefully cut down on his K rate. Don’t be surprised if Trumbo has a nice series this weekend.