LA Angels Series Preview: Mariners return in AL West Rematch

The LA Angels have jumped from playing Oakland to Seattle to Oakland once more and then back to Seattle in the span of a week.

While the LA Angels have looked good at many points throughout these series’ the outstanding issue is that they are still letting winnable games get away from them. Those issues mostly came against the A’s in this recent series and that goes to show how the Angels struggle when faced with higher end talent.

Now the Angels need to beat up on the Mariners to keep themselves within a fair distance from the AL Wild Card.

The Angels handled the Mariners pretty well their last time out with the M’s scoring no more than 4 runs in any of the three games in that series. The starting pitching and bullpen presented serious issues against the Oakland A’s this past series, a series in which the offense did everything they could to keep the Angels competitive. The pitching in that series didn’t work out as well as any of us had hoped and with Trevor Cahill on the bump in the final game of the series things aren’t looking any better than they did against the A’s.

Andrew Heaney is going to be making his third start of his season after striking out 18 batters over his last 11 innings of work. Last year was a bit of an up and down year for Heaney, but after everything he went through at the beginning of this season it really seems like something has changed within him. Not just in terms of overcoming his elbow injury itself, but overcoming his struggles with depression and anxiety.

Andrew Heaney is looking like a more determined man out on the mound, if we can see that same demeanor consistently throughout the season the Angels are going to be in an amazing spot to compete for the AL Wild Card. Although Heaney has had some slight long ball issues this season (4 HRs allowed in last two starts) he managed it well by minimizing the damage and leading the Angels to wins in both of those starts.

Angels vs Mariners

(6/7) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Andrew Heaney (0-0, 4.09 ERA) vs Marco Gonzalez (5-6, 4.89 ERA)

(6/8) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: TBD vs Yusei Kikuchi (3-3, 4.43 ERA)

(6/9): 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Trevor Cahill (2-6, 7.18 ERA) vs Wade LeBlanc (2-2, 5.70 ERA)

Back and better than ever

There is no doubt that Andrew Heaney is a new man out on the mound. If you followed his injury story at the beginning of the season you probably read the many articles in which Andrew Heaney opened up about his emotional and mental struggles regarding his chronic elbow injury. That article was extremely heavy to read, Heaney was as lost as he could be; from waking up and hating his body for not being able to stay healthy to having thoughts of a life away from baseball. That kind of hurt is something that either helps a person grow in the best ways possible or change for the worst. It reminds me of Zack Greinke and his struggles with anxiety and depression which nearly pushed him away from game.

What happened after Greinke found help for his issues? He went on to fully embrace the depths of his talent and go on to win a Cy Young and become one of the most prolific starting pitchers in modern day baseball history. To be clear I’m not trying to state that Heaney will have a massive shift in career trajectory and win Cy Youngs, all I’m stating is that Heaney can finally grow into the pitcher he was always supposed to be as long as he has truly grown from his issues.

We as fans can’t really tell if he is still struggling with those intense issues that assaulted him at the beginning of the season, and to be honest he probably still is to some degree because struggles with anxiety and depression always find a way to linger about. Those things never really go away, you just become stronger by finding new ways to deal with them. This goes beyond baseball, everything Andrew Heaney opened up about is something the vast majority of us have dealt with to some degree. Some of us are dealing with the struggles of anxiety and depression right now and it that allows us better perspective into what others, like Heaney, struggle with on a day-to-day basis.

When those mental and emotional struggles turn into emotional turmoil it makes it nearly impossible for you to “feel yourself”, the difficulty in feeling like you are embracing the best version of yourself at every possible moment becomes astronomical. If Andrew Heaney is truly at a point where he is embracing the truest version of himself there is no limit to the success he can find on the mound. The Angels need more starters that can give them big time energy on the mound and there is no reason Heaney can’t be that guy if he can just be himself on the mound.

Regardless of any successes or failures from Andrew Heaney in the future all that matters is that he finds a way to fully embrace himself and bring peace to himself.

Brand new Bash Bros

Shohei Ohtani is starting to wake up and Mike Trout is seeing all the benefits of having an actual threat behind him in the lineup. Over the last seven games we’ve seen Ohtani slash a line of .276/.371/.586 with 3 HR’s and 9 RBI’s, though he did suffer from 9 K’s in that span. Over that same stretch Trout has hit to a .393/.541/.857 with 4 HR’s and 11 RBIs as well as a lone double. At this point opposing pitchers can’t keep employing the “unintentional intentional walk” in which they just throw junk off the plate and if Trout swings he swings and if not he takes a walk. With someone who boasts actual power and hitting ability in Ohtani sitting behind Trout we’re seeing opposing pitchers being made to throw actual strikes to Trout and not just intentional junk.

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The success of Ohtani has a ripple effect across the entire team, with his big bat sitting behind Trout the Angels ability to create runs increases tenfold. This is no longer a lineup you can pitch lazy too and get free outs. This isn’t the Justin Bour/Zack Cozart Angels that has most of the lineup sleep walking through at-bats.

Mike Trout is finally getting the chance to really take over because he has a real support system now. It isn’t just Ohtani either; with Tommy La Stella and David Fletcher providing some of the best offense from the 2B spot we’re seeing across all of the MLB.

If the Angels are going to succeed in this series and make their way up the Wild Card ladder it’s going to happen off the backbone of Trout and Ohtani. That isn’t to diminish the contributions of others, in fact it’s those contributions from others that allow Ohtani and Trout to see more opportunities to seize success. This Angels team is really starting to gel with their chemistry, I know it’s been a long road these last two months but it really seems like they’re going to finally hit that groove we’ve all been waiting for.

At this point it’s just a matter of time.