LA Angels Series Preview: Starters Need Lengthy Outings vs. Rangers

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The LA Angels are back to competing against the AL West after splitting a three-game series against the Cubs that was cut short one game by weather delay.

The LA Angels didn’t do too well against the Cubs even in their win as the bullpen failed to provide strong late-innings, instead the team relying on fortune to escape an 8th and 9th inning jam. The Angels are back within their comfort zone as they look to rebuild the streak against the team they got hot against the first time around, the Texas Rangers.

The Angels are facing Texas once more in a series that looks to realign the Angels good fortunes as some bad luck took Mike Trout for a few games while bad weather scratched a game entirely off their schedule. The surprise off day is beneficial for the Angels given their heavily taxed bullpen arms and the need for Trout to get as much time as possible to fully recover from his groin strain.

The Angels have proved to be somewhat effective even without Trout, as they put up 6 runs in the second game of the Cubs series, but seeing as how Mike Trout was the brunt of the Angels’ offense during their home series against Texas, the Angels may be needing him back sooner than later.

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It’s not critical that Mike Trout comes back ASAP, especially against such a middling Rangers team, but at the same time the Angels need to take advantage of as many weak series match-ups as they can and pull as many 1st month winning streaks as possible.

The six game winning streak a week ago resettled the Angels after a terrible Opening Week against the A’s and Mariners, and was immense for the confidence of the club and fans alike. Another good streak in the middle of the month can set the Angels up for a hugely competitive May within the AL West.

As it has been all season so far, this wishful good fortune begins with the starting pitching.

Angels @ Rangers

(4/15) – 5:05 PM PT @ FS-W: Trevor Cahill (1-1, 3.50 ERA) vs Shelby Miller (0-1, 9.53 ERA)

(4/16) – 5:05 PM PT @ FS-W: Matt Harvey (0-2, 10.05 ERA) vs Mike Minor (1-1, 3.86 ERA)

(4/17) – 5:05 PM PT @ FS-W: Felix Pena (0-1, 3.65) vs Lance Lynn (1-1, 4.82 ERA)

Trevor Cahill is a critical component to success

Cahill was supposed to start in the final game of the Cubs series before the weather delay pushed his start back to today against the Rangers. Cahill’s role is becoming more and more critical as the year goes on and though it might be an importance created by team wide struggles more so than his own dominance as of right now he is one of the biggest keys to success for the Angels. Even better for Cahill that the Angels has knocked around Texas in recent history even outside the last series against the team.

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Last season the Angels played 10 games in Arlington and scored just 4 runs or less in just four of those ten games. In a best case scenario there will be some leeway with the Angels starting pitching here as they will be given some room to play with, the only concern is if the offense will be able to provide that support early on.

This will be a difficult series for the Angels as Arlington has been a difficult place to for them to pitch, as well as the dire need to protect the bullpen arms in this outing at the very least.

If Trevor Cahill can continue his effectiveness he showed against the Brewers and can last 6 innings while giving up only 2 runs, this first game will likely be a smooth affair. At the very least the Angels need 5 innings from Cahill, but given Angels struggles in Arlington I wouldn’t be surprised if he could only get through 4 innings. It’s critical for Cahill to get the Angels off to a good start in this first game, not just with a win, but with a long start.

A complete game may be too much to ask for and a CG shutout may be a dream at this point in time, but if Cahill can throw close to seven innings he will continue cementing his role as an early season savior.

Comeback Player of the Week

I know Comeback Player of the Week isn’t an actual award, but with how Matt Harvey has been throwing in his last two starts we need to see a bounce-back so hard that his performance makes him the de-facto winner of a non-existent award.

Of course that won’t happen, I really just want to see Harvey with a bounce-back so astronomically fierce that I refer to Harvey as the Comeback Player of the Week. What kind of start would he have to put up for that to happen? A 7 IP quality start? A CG shutout? A no-hitter?

A perfect game!?!

The realistic expectations here would be just 5 innings of quality baseball given his less-than-quality outing against the Rangers which saw him give up EIGHT runs in 4 IP just two starts ago. I would take 4 IP of just 2 runs allowed after how badly that start went.

Despite Bad Outings, There's Still Hope for Harvey. Related Story

Of course, the relief pitching is in need of some serious relief itself, even if the Angels don’t end up with a win in this second game they can still capture a moral victory by having Harvey pitch deep into the game and save some arms for tomorrow.

With Mike Minor on the other side of the mound this may not be as winnable a game as the other two in this series. Minor has been on fire with 12 strikeouts in his last 14 innings of 1.29 ERA baseball. On top of that he’s killed the Angels in their most recent visits; two 2018 starts against the Angels saw him stifle the team to a .214 batting average while the Rangers won both starts.

The Angels will have to change their destiny by finding some way, any way to knock Minor around for runs. I want to say they don’t have to obliterate him, but with Harvey on the mound opposite Minor they may want to bring all the runs they have stored up for the rest of the week into this outing

If I had to make one solid prediction for this Matt Harvey start I would guess that Harvey, after two poor starts in a row, comes out big time with a game to remember. It has been a while since an Angel tossed a no-hitter after all.

Felix Pena on the rise

What makes the previous starts in this series so important is their need to protect the bullpen in preparation of Felix Pena’s start. This isn’t to say that Pena is a fire-starter in any way, it’s only that Pena has not proved to be able to pitch deep into a game as of yet. His deepest start on the early season has been just 4.2 innings against the Rangers.

Pena has slowly shown improvement start to start as this young season moves forward, so there is tangible hope that he can continue the improvements going into Arlington. The opportunities for greater efficiency from Pena are all there it’s just a matter of Pena being able to tap into himself and bring out a better version than what he’s shown to start the season.

Los Angeles Angels

In his last outing, which came against the Brewers, Pena walked two and allowed three hits in his four innings of work, with just one unearned run allowed. Should he find greater control of his pitches in this start there, will no doubt be a deeper look for Pena in this outing.

In that start against the Brewers, we saw Pena throw just 72 pitches in that 4 inning outing with 32 of those pitches being balls out of the zone. The bright spots in this start, aside from the one unearned run, was his low pitch count coming out of the game.

That leaves the impression that Pena is well rested enough to post his longest start of the season while in Arlington, it just matters how well he pitches. The fact that he threw 32 balls to his 40 strikes shows that a greater efficiency in pitch economy is the key to stretching his starts.

Let’s run back to the fact that his best outing this year came against the Texas Rangers. Sure, it was at home and there is a big environmental shift playing in Arlington, but the fact that Pena was able to maneuver through the Rangers lineup shows a strong understanding of these opposing hitters.

Pena can do much better than he did in that start as he threw 90 total pitches in just 4.2 IP, though on those 90 pitches he struck out 7 and walked two while giving up 1 run on 4 hits. It’s heartening to see the building blocks for success on top of what was already a solid affair by Pena, but as is with this Angels team execution is not something that can be guaranteed.

Next. Five Players Who Are Key to Success vs. Rangers, Mariners

Should Pena be able to take the Angels deep into this game they will have the chance to run into their rematch against the Mariners with greater force than they did last time. This Rangers series has far less importance than the Mariners series in terms of AL West power-standings and momentum shifting, but at the same time the Rangers series may be even more important given the need for the Angels to get deep starts from the starters and rally together a winning series.

Don’t you just love paradoxes?

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