“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.” – Cormac McCarthy, The Road
The Angels’ experiences away from home this season haven’t been quite so desolate as Cormac McCarthy’s infamous post-apocalyptic hellscape, but it probably feels like it to those on the team who have had nothing but trouble outside of Anaheim.
The club presently owns the fifth fewest road wins (28) in baseball, thanks in large part to contributions (or lack there of) from three players: Garrett Richards, Jered Weaver, and Matt Shoemaker. That trio has combined to post an abysmal 5.26 ERA in 37 road starts (222.1 IP) this season, creating a sort of hidden Joe Blanton (Easter egg!) within the rotation. As fate would have it, two of those three guys will take the hill in Seattle this week, and the third, Shoemaker, will likely return to the rotation in Minnesota over the weekend. If the Angels want to hang around in the postseason race long enough to face Houston and Texas again, they’re going to need for Richards, Weaver, and the Shoe to cast out their Blantonian demons and at least churn out a quality start or two.
The Halos have played fairly well (8-5) against the M’s this year, but other than their four-game series split in July every contest has been close. Eight of their 13 match-ups this season have been decided by two runs or fewer, and their head-to-head run differential overall is only ±4. Surprisingly, Seattle is a better–than–.500 team in the second half, so their odds of playing the spoiler seem to be strong.
Game 1: Garrett Richards vs. Taijuan Walker
Garrett Richards has had some serious Jekyll & Hyde action going on lately. He was brilliant in his 7⅔ against the Dodgers last week, and nearly as good in Cleveland two weeks before. Surrounding those two starts, though, were two definitive clunkers, one in which he couldn’t miss bats and another in which he couldn’t help but miss the strike zone. If the pattern holds, bad Richards will show up Monday night. Let’s hope he doesn’t.
Taijuan Walker has been plagued with a similar duplicity in his first full big-league season. On some nights he shows the poise and precision of an MLB veteran, on others it’s abundantly clear that he’s a 23-year-old still trying to hone his mechanics and stay out of the heart of the plate. The latter shows up far more often than the former right now, but it’s not difficult to imagine everything clicking for him sometime soon. Hopefully not too soon, though.
Game 2: Nick Tropeano vs. Felix Hernandez
Nick Tropeano is not exactly getting easy assignments of late. His start against Felix on Tuesday will be his second straight against a former Cy Young winner, having dueled with Zack Greinke his last time out.
It’s a tough introduction to the league for a guy who’s merely keeping a spot warm. One would think the Angels could’ve shuffled the rotation during their two off-days at home so that Tropeano wasn’t lined up to face the opposition’s ace every time out, but I guess not.
The Tropedo was solid for the Angels in his debut way back in April, but his three second-half spot starts have been less than stellar. The Mariners aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, so hopefully he’s able to at least keep things relatively close.
Against Felix Hernandez, though, that’s becoming a tougher and tougher task. The Halos used to have (it) their way with the King, but he’s absolutely demolished the club the last two years. This season he’s 3-0 with a 0.67 ERA in four starts, his only runs allowed coming on solo shots from Mike Trout (naturally) and Matt Joyce (¯_(ツ)_/¯).
Game 3: Jered Weaver vs. Hisashi Iwakuma
Whenever I see Jered Weaver slated for a road start, I imagine Angels fans everywhere letting out a collective groan. As noted in the intro and in last week’s series preview, Weaver has not fared well on the road this season. Unlike his compatriots, however, Weaver’s struggles away from the comforts of home are not just limited to 2015.
Safeco Field should be a fly-ball pitcher’s haven—Chris Young and Jason Vargas, for instance, were both recent beneficiaries of the park’s forgiving dimensions. Weaver, for whatever reason, has had no such luck in Seattle. His 4.57 ERA at Safeco is the fifth worst of any pitcher with at least 100 innings pitched in the ballpark, and easily the worst mark by any visiting pitcher with that many innings. That Weaver’s starting there Wednesday in a likely do-or-die game for the Angels does not inspire confidence.
Since his no-hitter in August, Hisashi Iwakuma owns a 4.50 ERA (and 9.6 H/9) in 30 innings over five starts. He’s still probably a better pitcher than his overall line suggests, but it’s evident Iwakuma has been struggling to find that groove since returning from an early lat injury. The Angels shelled him back in April, but then got shut out for eight innings in July. Who knows what’ll happen this time. Probably something in between.
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