I don’t want to call this a must-win series for the Angels, but they really, really, really need to stop their slide this series if they want to maintain any hope of staying in the AL West race. This is a time of desperation.
One could write off the consecutive sweeps as a matter of bad timing with the Angels facing two very good teams who were both playing well. One could write it off to the Angels playing on the road. One could write it off as lingering side effects of Mike Trout getting hurt even. But none of those excuses are going to apply to this series or even this homestand. If they continue to struggle, it goes from one bad week to serious “looking at yourself in the mirror” time.
The Angels already caught one lucky break with Jason Kipnis landing on the disabled list before the series. Add that and possibly a David Murphy motivated by getting to face his former team and it looks like everything is coming up Milhouse for the Angels.
Game 1: Garrett Richards vs. Corey Kluber
First Kershaw and Greinke and now Kluber? C’mon, man. That’s just not fair. At least the Angels get to run their ace out against Kluber, but Richards hasn’t been all that ace-like lately. Of course it may not matter what Richards does. With the way things went against Kershaw and Greinke, would anyone be surprised if Kluber no-hit the Halos?
Game 2: Matt Shoemaker vs. Carlos Carrasco
This is a battle of two pitchers who had no idea if they’d still be on their respective team as of seven days ago. Shoemaker looked to be destined for the bullpen or minors, but C.J. Wilson‘s injury and Shoe’s hot streak changed that. Carrasco was nearly traded once before the deadline and then shopped heavily after that. Yet neither thing happen, so here they both are.
Game 3 – Hector Santiago vs. Danny Salazar
The regression bells have been tolling for Santiago but the Tribe might just be the right team to help silence those bells for a little bit. The Cleveland lineup has been solid this season, but that was before they divested themselves of Murphy and Brandon Moss and then lost Kipnis to the DL. Now the lineup is weakened and their best remaining hitters are mostly left-handed. Hector has also been a good bit better at home, so the cards are aligned for him to regain his All-Star form.
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