The hot hitting that helped the Angels deliver a sweep of the Royals at home stuck with the team in Texas over the weekend, even if it didn’t manifest itself on the scoreboard for the first two contests. The team tallied 10, 9, and 15 hits, respectively, in the three games of the series, raising the team’s batting line by another 20 points of OPS.
Since bottoming out at a .597 OPS after the first game in Seattle on April 22, the offense has increased that number in eight straight games, culminating in a .673 OPS entering Monday’s action. That’s still not quite league average, but it is a heck of a lot closer to average than anyone could imagine they’d be a week ago.
It’s disappointing that those strong numbers didn’t translate into runs early on in the series—going 2-for-15 with RISP and hitting into three double plays doesn’t help—but that kind of thing will even out in the long run. Sometimes for hints at the future it’s best to look past the results to underlying successes.
Boxscore Breakdowns
Game 1: Rangers 4, Angels 2
Game 2: Rangers 7, Angels 2
Game 3: Angels 9, Rangers 6
Series Takeaways
Geovany Soto Has Really Cut Down On His Swing-And-Miss
Soto has always had way more pop than the average catcher and is at least mediocre defensively. The only reason he hasn’t been a team’s primary catcher the last few years, other than the knee injuries, is because his strikeout rate since 2013 is 29.5 percent. This year, though, he’s been much, much better about putting bat to ball. His 94.6 percent Z-Contact rate is a career-high by more than six full percentage points, resulting in a strikeout rate of just 17.1 percent. If he can keep that up over a whole year, it’d easily be a career best. As if you needed more convincing that Soto should be starting over Carlos Perez (10 OPS+).
The Bullpen Has Been Nails The Last Week
By surrendering two runs in the ninth on Sunday, Joe Smith ended the Angels bullpen’s scoreless streak at 18 innings. Thanks to the streak the bullpen now owns a 3.09 ERA, which is 10th best in the game. Their FIP (4.02) is still uncomfortably high because of their league-worst strikeout rate (17.2%), but that too should come around in time.
Mike Morin, Greg Mahle, and Fernando Salas have been the catalysts for the turnaround, each holding a sub-3.00 ERA. And while Cory Rasmus and Jose Alvarez have struggled at moments, it’s really been Smith who has been the weak link in the bullpen chain. He’s one of only two Halo relievers (w/ Rasmus) to allow runs in four different appearances, and his 4.2 K/9 is almost half his career average. I don’t know what’s going on there, but figuring it out will go a long way toward continuing the recent success, especially with Huston Street out a while.
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