Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. New York Yankees Series Preview
Game 1: Monday 6/29 7:05pm C.J. Wilson (5-6, 3.92) vs. CC Sabathia (3-7, 5.65)
Game 2: Tuesday 6/30 7:05pm Andrew Heaney (0-0, 1.50) vs. Ivan Nova (1-0, 0.00)
Game 3: Wednesday 7/1 4:05pm Matt Shoemaker (4-6, 5.03) vs. Adam Warren (5-5, 3.59)
Old guys rule! You’ve seen those T-shirts and bumper stickers around town, right? Typically they’re popular in the surfing community but I think it’s time to give them some run in the baseball world. With the Yankees heading into Southern California tonight for a three game series against the Halos, wouldn’t it be fitting if the geezers from the Bronx rocked those tees while taking some batting practice? I think guys like A-Rod, Teixeira, McCann, Carlos Beltran and CC Sabathia would look great in them. And hey, the Yanks are pretty close to first place at 41-35 in the AL East so if the T-shirt fits, wear it, old guys!
There are certain things we’ve come to expect when the Yankees come to town to take on our Halos. First and foremost is the obscene turnout of Yankees fans at the Big-A, most of whom have probably never even been to New York or watched a single game on the YES network but somehow still turn up in droves to out-number Angels fans in their home park. NOTE TO READERS a.k.a. HALOS FANS: GO TO THE GAMES THIS WEEK TO REPRESENT YOUR ANGELS! Other things we have come to expect when the Yankees visit Anaheim include home runs from Alex Rodriguez who has hit 38 of his career 669 dingers at Angels Stadium. A-Rod has actually hit more total bombs (70) against the Angels than any other team in his arduous career. We should also probably expect to see Carlos Beltran miss some games while he is in town because he’s Carlos Beltran and he is old and injury prone and missing games seems to be a big part of what he does for the Yankees. I know that was kind of mean to say about Carlos, but it’s also really true. Finally, if things continue true to their 2015 form we should see CC Sabathia get ROCKED by the Angels’ right-handed hitters.
What are some things we can expect to see in this series from our Halos? Well, C.J. Wilson gets the opener on Monday night and I don’t think anyone is qualified to predict what C.J. Wilson is going to do on the mound. He’s pitched well in his career against New York and has very impressive numbers against the aforementioned A-rod, McCann and Teixiera. But this is C.J. Wilson. Just as he appeared to be settling into a groove with two nice starts against Oakland and Arizona, he followed that up with an absolute torching at the hands of the Astros. The ‘Stros showed him his earliest exit of the 2015 season in the 4th inning of his last start having allowed seven earned runs on eight hits. Still, history shows the Yankees lineup should give CJ some breathing room so some success from C.J. in game one is slightly expected. It helps that he is facing off against CC Sabathia who as mentioned is getting killed in 2015 by righty bats to the tune of a .339/.374/.580 split line. Trout, Pujols, Freese and the rest of the right handed bats for the Angels are currently drooling at the thought of this matchup.
Tuesday should be a fun one. Youngster Andrew Heaney will man the bump for the Halos and the Yankees will counter with the electric arm of Ivan Nova. Interestingly enough, Heaney is 24 years old and has a grandfather on the Yankees named Mark Teixieira. Just kidding, Tex isn’t his actual grandpa but Mark should be old enough by now to have some grandkids running around somewhere. Maybe even in Anaheim, he did spend some time here one year, remember? That is not a fair question to ask Mark, he probably shouldn’t be expected to remember much of anything at his age. Either way, we’ll get to see Heaney for just the second time ever in an Angel uniform and if he can replicate his first performance from last week against Houston, there will be some upset fake Yankees fans in the Angel stadium crowd. Nova will be a tough matchup for the Halos though because he is a right handed pitcher, and that is basically all it takes these days to shut down the Angels offense. The fact that he is a pretty good right handed pitcher probably puts the Angels squarely behind the 8-ball in this one.
Wednesday’s contest will be the finale of a nine game home stand for the Angels and they will surely be looking to head into their off–day on a high note. They’ll hope to do so with a strong pitching performance from Matt Shoemaker. The bad news is they have to face-off against another right handed pitcher in Adam Warren. Warren has performed admirably for the Yankees this year filling in for an array of old or injured dudes that can’t stay healthy enough to pitch regularly. Warren has definitely been a bright spot for the Yankees in 2015 and at 27 years old is just a baby in Yankees player age comparisons. This will be the second time the Angels face Warren this year. They saw him earlier this month in New York. The Halos lost that game and Warren was the winning pitcher having gone 6-2/3 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 earned runs. Trout took him deep in the 6th inning of that game but I doubt you saw it. You had probably already changed the channel by then because that was the game Garrett Richards allowed everyone in attendance, fans and players alike to score for the Yankees before the first inning ended. The Angels will seek their revenge this week for that one.
Enjoy the games everybody! And don’t forget, Old Guys Rule so be nice if an older gentlemen is driving too slow in front of you today or if you’re at the grocery store and the guy from the greatest generation is trying to pay entirely in coupons. In fact, you may even want to ask that guy for his autograph, you never know it could be A-Rod trying to scrape back some of that bonus money the Yankees never paid him for hitting his 660th homerun!
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