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Houston at Los Angles (AL), 2:35 PM CT
TV: CSN Houston
Radio: KBME 790
Angels SBNation Blog: Halos Heaven
Pitching Match
RHP Philip Humber (0-2 / 3.09 ERA / 1.11 WHIP) vs. LHP C.J. Wilson (0-0 / 5.25 ERA / 1.50 WHIP)
Preview
Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty rally monkey! Albert Pujols sent me back to a dark place with his game-wining double last night. The thud of his homerun against Brad Lidge came rushing back to the front of my mind. Outside of the fact the Astros lost, Houston once again looked good playing "Bo-Ball". Lucas Harrell rounded back into form, of Harrell's 17-recorded outs - 11 batters were retired by groundballs and 5 were by strikeout. Chris Carter added another homerun to his 2013 total, which makes 4 homeruns over the last 4 games. The Astros still have a chance to take the series today as they send Philip Humber to the mound.
Humber's record of 0-2 doesn't reflect his overall performance thus far in 2013. The Astros have scored 0 runs in Humber's two start this year. Kind of tough to win a game if your team fails to put up any runs. Humber has been like clockwork thus far, giving up 5 hits and striking out two in each of his starts. Humber will have to be careful with Pujols and Trout; each has homered of Humber in their little experience against him. I don't expect Christ Carter to slow down against C.J. Wilson; he is 3-4 lifetime against Wilson.
The California boy, C.J. Wilson, came home in 2012 after seven years in Arlington. The home cooking hasn't worked out thus far for Wilson - his walks are up, strikeouts down, and his ERA jumped up almost a whole run from 2011 to 2012. Wilson's biggest change last season was a drop in the number of pitches he threw out of the strike zone. Seem obvious of course, pitchers have to throw strikes but Wilson's 2012 percentage (61%) of strikes thrown put him sixth lowest percentage for AL pitchers. The Angels have lost both of Wilson's starts thus far; Wilson has given up 7 earned runs and walked seven over those two starts. Wilson looks like he can be had, but Wallace, Castro, and Pena will need to improve upon a collective batting average of .077 against the Angels starter.
