SERIES PREVIEW: LAA Angels (61-58) @ Texas Rangers (61-58)
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by user ASwaff
Business First: Apparently Kip Wells still isn’t fully healthy. After the Texas Rangers official website announced that Wells had been scratched from his Thursday start and pushed back to Saturday, Wells was placed on the 15-day DL (retroactive to August 12) with a sprained foot. The team had announced its intention to either recall Robinson Tejeda or John Koronka in the event that Wells went on the DL, but opted instead today for reliever Scott Feldman.
The Rangers don’t have any up-coming off days that would allow them to go to a temporary four-man rotation, so the decision to recall Feldman likely means one of two things. Rick Bauer, who has made one start this season, could be going into the rotation. Or, they may choose to place lefty C.J. Wilson in the rotation, an option the club has been mulling all season. Suddenly, a rotation that was looking a lot stronger with the acquisition of Wells and the return of Eaton is looking painfully weak again.
And congratulations to Mark DeRosa for being named the AL player of the week. Last week, DeRosa batted .433 (13/30) and nabbed two doubles, four homeruns and 15 RBI.
The Lowdown: After a dreadful road trip that the Rangers split 5-5, they have won their last five games, all against division foes. The last four wins were against the Seattle Mariners, which may have put the nail in the coffin for that team’s season. They fell way into last place, 10 games behind the division-leading Oakland Athletics. With the five wins, Texas moved back into a second-place tie with its up-coming opponent (the LAA Angels), 5.5 games behind Oakland. Texas hasn’t just been winning the last few games; they’ve been winning big. They have won their last five games by an average of six runs.
The Angels had a stellar July to make them playoff contenders for the first time since April. But, they have started off August sluggishly, winning just 7 of their first 14 games. This series wraps up a road trip on which they have been held to fewer than three runs in 4 of their 8 games. On the trip, they also lost two out of three games to a Cleveland Indians team that is just 53-64 on the season. The good news for the Angels is that, even with the struggles they’ve had this season, they are 6-4 against the Rangers. Last time these teams met, they split a four game series in Anaheim. This time, they will meet for just two games before the Rangers embark on another difficult road trip.
Players to Watch:
Mark Teixeira - If DeRosa hadn’t won AL player of the week, it very well could have been Tex. True, his streak of reaching base safely ended at 36 games on Sunday, but he still batted .385 (10/26) last week with four doubles. He has also been walking a lot lately. His seven walks last week gave other hitters opportunities to drive him in, leading to seven runs scored for Teixeira. Look for him to finally have a good series against the Angels, a team that he is batting just .212 against this season.
Mark DeRosa - In addition to being on fire of late, DeRosa is one of the few Rangers hitters that has actually had success against Angels pitching this season. In four games, he is batting .400 (4/10) with three doubles, a homerun and five RBI.
Ian Kinsler - Despite his defensive struggles of late, Kinsler’s bat has really had a spark in it this month, reminding yours truly of his breakout performance in April. He is batting .327 in August, and although he hasn’t hit a homerun and has only 5 RBI, he has already scored 12 runs. That’s already good for his second-best month of the season, just one behind the 13 runs he scored in July. He’s also been a thorn in the side of the Angels this year. His .421 batting average against them is the best on the club, as is his three stolen bases. The rest of the lineup will need to help him find ways to contribute, however. In his six games against the Angels, despite his .421 batting average and .500 on-base percentage, Kinsler has scored just 1 run and has just three RBI.
Angels in the Outfield - In the last series preview for the Angels, I pointed out that their outfielders have really battered the Rangers. The last series was no exception. In the four game set, Angels outfielders batted .333 (22/66) with seven homeruns, 16 runs and 22 RBI. In the two games they won, outfielders batted .354. Not a huge improvement over the .314 they batted in their two losses, just to say that the key for Rangers pitching has to be keeping those outfield bats in check.
Probables:
Tuesday, August 15, 7:05 CST
TEX: RHP Vicente Padilla (12-7, 4.13)
LAA: RHP Ervin Santana (12-6, 4.14)
This is about as even a statistical matchup as you can get. The “dirtiest pitcher in baseball” (thanks for that gem, Ozzie Guillen), Padilla, will look to continue his hot streak tonight. He has won his last two starts, and is 5-2 with a 3.38 ERA since the beginning of June. He only has one start in his last nine that was not a quality start (and it was against the Kansas City Royals, of all teams). He is 1-0 with a 5.25 ERA in two starts against the Angels this year. His win came in his last start against them, when he allowed just three runs over seven innings.
Santana lasted just one-third of an inning in his last start because of a line drive that was hit off the inside of his left knee. That was a bum deal for him, because the one run he allowed on one hit was enough to get him the loss. In his previous outing, he dominated the Rangers, holding them to three runs (two earned) over eight innings to pick up the win. However, it was the only win he’s had in his last five starts. In those five starts, Santana has an ERA of 5.33.
Wednesday, August 16, 7:05 CST
TEX: RHP Adam Eaton (2-2, 4.41)
LAA: RHP Joe Saunders (4-0, 1.67)
It’s been one-bad-start-one-good-start so far for Eaton as a Ranger. And when he’s down, he’s really down. In his two bad starts, Eaton is 0-2 with 6 earned runs allowed in 4.1 innings (12.56 ERA). In his two good starts, Eaton is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. The bad news is that one of those bad starts (when he got ejected in the first inning for “throwing at a batter”) came against the Angels. The worse news is that it’s his turn for a bad start. Eaton has with nobody on and nobody out, holding opponents hitless in 14 at-bats. The problem for him has been the walks - 9 in 16.2 innings. Watch out for those free passes.
Joe Saunders has been money in four starts for the Angels, one of which was a start against the Rangers in which he shut them out for seven innings en route to a win. He also has wins against the New York Yankees, Oakland A’s and Cleveland Indians. The one bright spot for the Rangers in this matchup is that the last time they faced an undefeated Angels pitcher with more than three starts (Jered Weaver), they picked up the win by forcing him out of the game after just six innings.
Date
Tue 08/15/06, 1:19 pm EST
