LA Angels Weekly Predictions: Week Six

Wednesday, May 10 @ Oakland

Probables: Jesse Chavez vs. Andrew Triggs

The Angels will face Andrew Triggs in this series finale. He has been a welcome surprise for the Athletics this season, owning a 2.34 ERA on the season. He has done a great job preventing the long ball this season, giving up only one on the year. His first start of the year came against the Angels, and he absolutely owned them. He threw 5.2 innings, allowing one unearned run on four hits. He walked three batters, and only struck out one. However, he allows his defense to make plays behind him and does not rely on strikeouts to get through the order. Mike Trout is the only Angels batter to have taken Triggs deep in his career. A positive sign for the Angels batters is that they have five career walks against Triggs and only three strikeouts.

Jesse Chavez will go for the sweep against his former club on Wednesday. Chavez has made six starts on the year, and owns a 4.46 ERA on the year. He has given up six home runs on the year, but has never been taken deep by a current A’s batter. In his last start, Chavez allowed three runs to the Houston Astros over 6.1 innings. He has two starts on the road this year, allowing one earned run in one start and four earned runs in the other.

In another game where the starting pitchers have little experience against these batters, the Angels will need to use smart baserunning and keep putting the ball in play against Triggs, as relying on the long ball simply will not work.

Prediction- A’s 4, Angels 3 in extras