The Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels play Game 2 of their three-game set at the Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
Texas defeated Los Angeles 6-4 on Monday in Game 1 of the series, racing off to a 6-0 lead after six innings. The Angels battled back with four runs in the 7th to cut the deficit to 6-4 but the Rangers held on. Kohei Arihara got his second win of the season after taking a shutout to the sixth inning. Dylan Bundy took his second loss after giving up five runs on seven hits for the Angels who dropped to 8-5 with the loss.
The Texas Rangers are 8-9 on the season and they are in 4th place in the early American League West team standings. Texas has won five out of its last seven games, including their last two and they head to Game 2 with an impressive 6-4 win over the Angels on Monday night.
Adonis Garcia homered and doubled-off Dylan Bundy while Kohei Arihara pitched a shutout up to the sixth inning as the Rangers knocked off the Angels on Monday night. Willie Calhoun’s RBI single in the 6th forced Bundy off the game while Jose Trevino followed it up with a sacrifice fly to put the game out of reach.
Nate Lowe leads the Rangers with 20 RBI and four home runs on 14 hits. Meanwhile, Nick Solak paces Texas with 17 hits and a batting average of .293. Joey Gallo has 11 hits and 5 RBIs while leading the team in OBP at .453. Isiah Kiner- Falefa has seven RBIs and two homers for Texas.
Jordan Lyles will open on top of the mound for the Rangers. Lyles is 1-0 on the season with an ERA of 4.7, 5.58 FIP, and a 1.239 WHIP in a total of 15.1 innings pitched so far. The 10-year veteran has given up eight earned runs including four home runs, 16 hits, 3 walks, and 13 strikeouts.
The Los Angeles Angels are 8-5 on the season and they have dropped four out of their last six games. The Angels failed to take advantage of two postponed games against the Minnesota Twins and lost to the Rangers in Game 1 of this series 6-4 on Monday night at their home field.
Justin Upton homered for the Angels while Pujols drove home Walsh on a single to cut the lead to 6-2. A single by Kurt Suzuki allowed Pujols to score as well while Jose Iglesias scored on a wild pitch as the Angels threatened to 6-4. But that was as close as they would get as the teams would go scoreless the rest of the way.
Mike Trout leads the Angels with a batting average of .354 and four home runs on the season. Trout also has 17 hits and 10 RBIs on the season. Jared Walsh leads the team with 13 RBIs while Shohei Ohtani has 12 RBIs and four home runs as DH. The Angels are 8th in the league with a total of 71 runs scored this season.
Shohei Ohtani will start for the Angels on Tuesday. The 26-year old has not pitched since the first week of April when he threw 92 pitches in 4.2 innings of work, giving up one run on two hits. However, he struggled with his control as he walked five and struck out seven. Thus far, his FIP is 3.31 and WHIP is 1.50.
Texas is 16-35 in their last 51 games played on a Tuesday, 16-37 in their last 53 games played on grass, 8-23 in their last 31 games as road underdogs, 23-48 in their last 71 games against an opponent with a winning record, and 25-54 in their last 79 road games. The Rangers are 0-5 in their last five games against a right-handed starter and 13-41 in their last 54 games with the total set between 7 to 8.5.
Los Angeles is 4-1 in their last five games played at home, 6-1 in their last seven games when the total is set between 7 to 8.5, 10-2 in their last 12 games against a right-handed starter, and 6-2 in their last eight home games against an opponent with a losing record. The Angels are 7-3 in their last 10 games as home favorites, 5-2 in their last seven games against the American League West division, and 7-3 in their last 10 games overall against opponents with a losing record.
The Angels are 4-1 in the last five meetings and 14-4 in the last 18 meetings in Los Angeles.
The Rangers struggled on the plate against the Orioles as they scored only four total runs during their three-game set. Texas will need to generate some offense if they are to find success in this game and series. Well,’ they did just that in Game 1, scoring six runs and beating the Angels 6-4.
Los Angeles is playing pretty good baseball right now but Ohtani will be pitching for the first time since his season debut two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see if the Angels will limit his pitch count here as he hasn’t thrown anything since then. The bullpen hasn’t been impressive either. With two unreliable pitchers here and the Rangers scoring six runs on Monday, I’ll take the plus money here and the Rangers.
Prediction: Texas Rangers
The total has gone over in five out of the last eight Game 2s of a series played by the Rangers. The over is 16-4-2 in their last 22 road games when the total is set between 7 to 8.6, 3-1-1 in their last five games against the American League West, 5-2-1 in their last eight games as betting underdogs, and 5-2-1 in their last eight Tuesday games. Texas has seen the total go over in five out of their last eight games played on the road.
The total has gone over in five out of the Angels’ last six games against an opponent with a losing record. The over is 4-1-1 in their last six home games when the total is set between 7 to 8.5. The over is also 20-7-2 in their last 29 home games against an opponent with a losing record, and the over is 23-9-2 in their last 34 games as home favorites. Los Angeles has seen the total go over in 26 out of their last 39 home games.
Texas ranks 17th in the majors in run prevention, allowing 4.44 runs per game. Meanwhile, the Angels are the worst team in the league in that department at 5.23 runs per game given up. We have two unreliable starters opening for both teams and this pair combined for 10 runs on Monday in Game 1 of this three-game set.
Lyles and his bullpen have been hit this season. Ohtani showed control issues in his debut. If both pitchers struggle on Tuesday, the teams have the firepower to put up runs on the board. I’m guessing another high-scoring contest here.
Prediction: Over 8.5
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