2022 Series Poll: Houston Astros @ Los Angeles Angels

Quick Notes

I’m squeezed on time for this post, so gonna have to make this short and sweet:

The Angels have been bad this season.

Ok, a little less short: After much ballyhoo that the Angels were going to finally be able to break out in 2022, those predictions have been proven very false. They had a big blow a while back with superstar Mike Trout missing a couple of months with a back injury, but really the familiar saga of big offense anchored by several stud players being unable to overcome bad pitching has reasserted itself.

That’s not to say that the Angels are a cakewalk as any professional MLB team is going to strike gold every once in a while. In fact, the Astros arrive in town just as the Angels seem to be on the upswing, winning 5 of their last 6 games, which came against the Blue Jays and Yankees. Though it certainly is germane to point out that they were swept by the Rays in a 4-game series, and lost a series to the Tigers immediately before that.

They won’t be playing October baseball this season, though, so we’ll see if their motivation to play spoiler for the Astros’ #1 seeding motivates them to a series win this weekend.

Offensive Stats: YTD, Last 7 Days

Pitching Stats: YTD, Last 7 Days

Last 10 Games: 5-5 Record, 2 Series Win, 1 Series Swept, +1 Run Differential (41 scored, 40 allowed)

W/L Splits: 28-37 at home, 29-37 on the road, 27-48 against teams over .500

Injured List: Jared Walsh: 60-Day IL (rib), Mickey Moniak: 10-Day IL (finger), Michael Lorenzen: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Archie Bradley: 60-Day IL (elbow), Anthony Rendon: 60-Day IL (wrist), Chris Rodriguez: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Griffin Canning: 60-Day IL (back)

Starters

Game 1: Lance McCullers, Jr. (RHP, 1-1, 1.69 ERA, 13 K’s) vs Reid Detmers (LHP, 5-4, 3.47 ERA, 99K’s)

Game 2: Luis Garcia (RHP, 11-8, 4.14 ERA, 132 K’s) vs Shohei Ohtani (RHP, 11-8, 2.67 ERA, 176 K’s)

Game 3: Jose Urquidy (RHP, 12-5, 3.69 ERA, 109 K’s) vs Tucker Davidson (LHP, 2-4, 5.77 ERA, 21 K’s)

For Your Viewing and Listening Pleasure

Game 1: Friday, September 2nd @ 8:38 pm CDT
Listen: Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, KTRH 740 AM/99.1 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 / Angels - KLAA 830, KWKW 1330
Watch: Astros - ATT SportsNet-SW / Angels - Bally Sports West

Game 2: Saturday, September 3rd @ 8:07 pm CDT
Listen: Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, KTRH 740 AM/99.1 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 / Angels - KLAA 830
Watch: Astros - ATT SportsNet-SW / Angels - Bally Sports West

Game 3: Friday, September 4th @ 3:07 pm CDT
Listen: Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, KTRH 740 AM/99.1 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 / Angels - KLAA 830
Watch: Astros - ATT SportsNet-SW / Angels - Bally Sports West