LA Angels Series Preview: Nowhere to go but up vs Rangers

Fishing for wins

Mike Trout is going to be a key player in this series just like he was in the first series against the Rangers back in April. He’s been bouncing back from his “slump” pretty decently as of late, within the last week he’s hit .289/.461/.579 with 2 HR’s. What’s crazy is how those numbers are still off from what Trout is typically producing.

This series against the Rangers is the perfect time for Trout to truly explode into form. This is a series the Angels are very capable of winning, but they’re going to have to rely on Trout as well as the starting pitching. Trout can’t do much to bring in wins if the starting pitching is serving up runs like hotcakes. At the same time Trout can also act as an equalizer for the Angels awful starting pitching.

Tyler Skaggs gave up 5 runs in his start? It’s no biggie when Trout clubs an early 3-run HR and gives the rest of the team the opportunity to make up for that deficit. Luckily for Trout he isn’t the only producer on this team. Tommy La Stella is having a ridiculous season and has been one of the best contributors on a rail thin team. There is still a lot left to be desired with this team, especially with the young core of talent coming into themselves. Will they be able to click with the Rangers coming into town?

That’s the thing with this Angels team, they’re constantly shifting between hot and cold at a moments notice. There are no streaks to be had here, at least hot streaks that is. The Angels are constantly getting stuck in cold stretches and when they do eventually heat up it’s only for a flicker of a moment. Like a match blown out by the furious winds of baseball.

The Angels are going to need to lean on Trout a lot this season, but especially in this upcoming Rangers series. Believe it or not the Angels are still in a position to compete aside from the horrendous starting pitching. The team is only 4.5 games back in the AL Wild Card, and yeah it does suck having to scoreboard watch for the wild-card  this early in the season, but that’s just the reality of the situation.

The Rangers are currently 3rd in wild-card standings, if the Angels can pull off a sweep here they’ll be primed to end the month sniffing the wild-card.