Health concern to key LA Angels SP shuffles rotation order in worst possible time

LA Angels' starting pitcher Patrick Sandoval is dealing with arm fatigue, which has shuffled the rotation order to begin the season. Of course, this is why he didn't pitch Game 2 of the season. Instead, Reid Detmers did, and he didn't pitch Game 3 either, as Noah Syndergaard did.

He was flipped in the rotation with No. 6 starter Reid Detmers. Clearly, he needed all that time to where he would be pushed back to start Game 6 of the season.

It's not because the team wanted him to push back his start just a day or two, and so they flipped him with Detmers just so they could continue to have a lefty in between the two power right-handers in Shohei Ohtani and Syndergaard. If they did, they would have just had him pitch Game 4 and move LHP Jose Suarez up to Game 2.

Suarez and Lorenzen will still be the Game 4 and 5 starters, respectfully, for the Angels despite Patrick Sandoval's fatigue.

This is the worst possible time for Patrick Sandoval to be experiencing fatigue like this for the LA Angels, as they are in a series against a team that is coming off of a season where they had much success against the Halos. Anaheim was 6-13 against Houston last year. The 'Stros scored 6.2 runs off of Angel pitching last season.

Sure, the next two games of this six-run stretch will be against the Miami Marlins, but four of the six games being against the Astros is still tough. As for how Detmers handled the change, he showed improvement from where he was last year.

He only went four innings, which is about what he averaged last year, but that's only because he was on a pitch count due to a shortened spring training around the league this year. He only allowed two runs in those four innings, and while those were both home runs (that needs to be changed), there's no doubt that he certainly looked much improved. That's about all anyone could have expected in start No. 1 on a short pitch count. Sandoval isn't injured, but hopefully he'll get his arm back on track as quickly as possible.