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LA Angels Series Preview: Taming the Green Monster

By Ryan Falla

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 30: Wally the Green Monster, the mascot of the Boston Red Sox dances before the MLB London Series game between Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at London Stadium on June 30, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 30: Wally the Green Monster, the mascot of the Boston Red Sox dances before the MLB London Series game between Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at London Stadium on June 30, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) /
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Taming the Monster

The Angels offense has not been in the best place as of late, outside of Trout the team is struggling to put up any kind of notable offensive impact. Shohei Ohtani has been hitting .226/.312/.419 over the last two weeks with just 1 HR to show for it.

David Fletcher has had just one month this year in which he’s hit under .300, but August is starting to look a lot like his June where he hit just .233. In the last eleven games Fletcher has slashed .209/.261/.279 and has walked just 3 times in those 46 PA’s. Justin Upton has been plain awful since coming off of the DL, as he’s hit just .171/.247/.343 in his last 20 games, and within the last week he’s done barely a tick better by slashing .167/.313/.417 within the last week.

Los Angeles Angels

At this point it really isn’t enough to have Mike Trout be the lone star of this offensive, even if he has been slashing .300/.404/.750 in his last eleven games. We need to see the power potential in guys like Matt Thaiss, who can shred Fenway with his power stroke, though he has had only 1 hit in his last 5 games (the hit being a 2 RBI double).

Kole Calhoun is one of the better power hitters on this team this season with his 25 bombs, though he too has been struggling lately. Even with the Red Soxs ailing pitchers on the bump across the whole series it seems more likely that their starters would bounce back off the Angels poor offense rather than the Angels offense heat up against the Red Sox poor pitching.

There is no doubt that some of these guys will wake up alongside Mike Trout, Fenway is just too good of a hitters park and the Red Sox pitchers are doing bad enough that you can count on something Angels way. Will it be Matt Thaiss finding his best stretch of offense in his short time with the Angels? Or can Upton finally shed the monkey that’s been riding his back since coming back from injury?

At the very least, even if the Angels offense doesn’t turn it up, we’ll get to see some the Angels future get some reps in one of the biggest stages in the MLB?

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