LA Angels Series Preview: Angels host A’s in AL West Rematch

The A’s are sitting just 0.5 games ahead of the LA Angels in the Wild Card race as of today. The good news doesn’t end there, because the A’s Are suffering through a 5 game losing skid.

The A’s losing streak started after losing two of three games to the LA Angels. Can the Angels take advantage of this golden opportunity to advance in the playoff standings with a series win, or even a sweep against the Oakland A’s?

The Angels have been finding some strong success against the AL West by taking 7 of the last 10 games they’ve played against division rivals in the last two weeks. The Angels schedule in the last two weeks has been stacked with AL West opponents and that streak will last until the end of this week. There is a fair amount of hope behind this match-up against the A’s as the Angels will be throwing three pitchers who had have success that ranges from great to moderate against this A’s squad.

Could a sweep cement the Angels position as a serious playoff contender? The Angels are good at beating up on bad teams and typically struggle against good teams, and while the Angels won the last series against the A’s they haven’t shown enough consistency to prove they can do it again and again. But that can all change in this series, especially with the fresh-faced youth running the team.

The Angels have won 7 out of the last 10 against AL West opponents, maybe they are finding that consistency after all?

Angels vs Athletics

(6/4) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Griffin Canning (2-1, 3.06 ERA) vs Frankie Montas (6-2, 2.81 ERA)

(6/5) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Felix Pena (3-1, 3.42 ERA) vs Daniel Mengden (1-1, 3.05 ERA)

(6/6) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Tyler Skaggs (4-5, 4.50 ERA) vs Mike Fiers (4-3, 4.78 ERA) 

Aces High

This series is marked by a handful of pitchers that have been on a hot streak in recent starts. In this first game of the series we have the emergent ace in Griffin Canning facing off against one of the best pitchers in the AL right now in Frankie Montas. Despite how consistent Montas has been through the 2019 season so far the Angels still found a way to bully him out of their last match up after just 4 innings of work. His 4 IP/4 ER start against the Angels was his shortest start of the season and if the Angels are truly getting better at practicing that consistency they’ve been missing all season they’ll find a way to damage Montas once again.

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The Angels have been fantastic at creating run scoring opportunities and capitalizing them as of late so there is plenty of faith in thier ability to do so against Montas. In total the Angels have scored 44 runs in the last seven games, and six of those games were against AL West opponents (three versus the A’s).

One of those games was a 12 run affair against the Oakland A’s, although it should be noted that game was an extra inning affair that saw the Angels score a multitude of runs after the 9th inning. Clearly this team has serious firepower, if they can find a way to unload that against ace Frankie Montas they’ll be kicking off both this series and the month of June in the best way possible.

Second up is Felix Pena, the man who thrives off the opener strategy, vs Daniel Mengden, who had solid success against the Angels in his last outing. Mengden allowed just one run in 4.1 IP of work against the Angels his last time out, although it needs to be noted he holds a career 7.54 ERA against the Angels through five career appearances. Pena, on the other hand, has been on fire when starting games after an opener is used. The Angels have employed the opener six times in Pena’s last seven starts, and in those starts he is maintaining a 3.13 ERA across 31.2 IP. Clearly the forecast favors the Angels here, but at the same time the Angels have always been good at turning favorable matchups into frustrating affairs

Lastly we have the struggling Tyler Skaggs against the red-hot Mike Fiers. Despite Skaggs posting a season best 7 IP against the Mariners he did allow two home runs and 4 total earned runs allowed. That isn’t the worst pitching line, but at the same time we all know Tyler Skaggs should be producing at a higher rate than what he currently is now. In fact Skaggs has posted 5.29 ERA throughout his six starts in the month of May. On the other hand Mike Fiers has posted a 2.82 ERA across his last seven starts.

Underrated All-Stars

How crazy is it that David Fletcher and Ty Buttrey are two of the best players in baseball in their positions as of right now? Coming into this season many saw Fletcher as a solid roving infielder who would put up a solid enough offensive line to keep him in the lineup.

Three months into the season and we’re seeing him perform as the most consistent performer on the Angels, even more so than Mike Trout at this point. Trout is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, don’t get me wrong, but even he has said himself how his swing has been off most of the year.

Meanwhile Fletcher has been the most consistent hitter on the Angels with a .322/.377/.459 slash line with a surprising 4 HR’s and 12 doubles on the season. His clutch numbers are fantastic as well with Fletcher posting a .316/.381/.395 line with men on base. With two outs in the inning he’s hitting .311/.373/.426 with 5 doubles and a triple in 61 AB’s.

Next to Fletcher’s over-achieving performance is Ty Buttrey’s phenomenal prowess on the mound. Buttrey has pitched 29.1 innings of 1.23 ERA baseball along with 36 K’s and 7 BB’s. If that line isn’t good enough for an All-Star bid then I’m not sure what is. The Angels are fielding an under-the-radar team that is far better than many people understand them to be.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, while this Angels team continues to trim the fat as the season goes on the talent will only shine brighter and brighter. With Cody Allen losing time in the bullpen we’ve seen Buttrey given an expanded role and he’s brought the Angels far more success than if they relied on Allen as a high-leverage reliever.

These are two critical components to the Angels success in both this series and this season. Fletcher is exactly what the Angels have been needing for years out of the #9/#1 hole in the lineup. It’s great to finally have someone in front of Trout who is a serious threat to get on base and score on a consistent basis. It’s great to have great hitters like Trout in the lineup, but it’s the powerful support of under-the-radar hitters like David Fletcher who can make this a truly dangerous lineup.

Having Buttrey pitch in high-leverage situations has already been a lifesaver for the Angels on numerous occasions and will continue to be so, especially in key series such as this A’s series.