ARLINGTON, Texas — Not too long ago, this series between two American League West rivals was circled on the calendar as one with potentially huge playoff implications. In the days following the trade deadline, however, the narratives have swiftly changed.
While still featuring one of the best players in the game, perhaps ever, the Los Angeles Angels (59-60, 4th place AL West) find themselves quickly falling behind the rest of the division in their quest to salvage Shohei Ohtani’s tenure in Anaheim.
This isn’t to say that the Texas Rangers (70-48, 1st place AL West) should take their division mates lightly. Texas needs each win that they can get in their pursuit of the division crown, but the stakes for this series have been dramatically altered with the Angels trailing the Rangers now by double digits.
Angels at the deadline
The eyebrows of the sporting world collectively raised when the Angels officially pulled shoe-in MVP Ohtani off the trading block a couple of days before the MLB trade deadline. It would have been one thing if the club had come out and said that no other teams had come close to offering them what they wanted for the two-way phenom so they simply didn’t feel as inclined to deal the soon-to-be free agent.
Instead, Los Angeles, then 5.5 games behind the Rangers and 1.5 games back of a wild card spot, decided to push their chips toward the center of the table and declared their intent to compete for a playoff spot. They acquired pitcher Lucas Giolito, who had been a Rangers target, from the White Sox, first baseman C.J. Cron and outfielder Randal Grichuk from the Rockies, and shortstop Dominic Leone from the Mets as ways to replace their injury-filled roster to make a push.
The results, however, have been far less than desirable for the Angels. Since the actual trade deadline of August 1st, the Angels have played 11 games and lost 9 of them. They’ve fallen to 11.5 games behind Texas for the AL West title and are 6.5 behind the Toronto Blue for the last Wild Card spot.
Their woes started by losing the final two games of their series against the Atlanta Braves to start the month. They were then swept in a four-game set by the Seattle Mariners before taking a series from the Giants, from whom the Rangers just won a series. Over the weekend, they lost two of three to the Astros, making their outlook for the remainder of the year look bleak.
But perhaps nothing is as bleak as the looming inevitability of losing Ohtani in the offseason and getting naught but a draft pick back for the 29-year old once and future MVP unless they turn things around and fast.
The matchups
- Game 119: 7:05 PM CST – Pablo Sandoval (6-8, 3.86 ERA) vs. Max Scherzer (11-4, 3.88 ERA)
- Game 120: 7:05 PM CST – Lucas Giolito (7-8, 4.37 ERA) vs. Jordan Montgomery (7-10, 3.38 ERA)
- Game 121: 7:05 PM CST – TBD vs. Jon Gray (8-5, 3.65 ERA)
The Rangers will send their top three to the mound against their division rivals. While a Max Scherzer versus Shohei Ohtani matchup would certainly be a marquee event, it appears that while Scherzer will go for the Rangers in the opener, Ohtani is going to be skipped from his scheduled start after suffering from arm fatigue.
That sounds like relatively good news for Texas, as Ohtani has been good at 10-5 with a 3.17 ERA while sporting an 11.4 K/9 rate. However, he has been even better at the plate than he has on the mound and now that will be his lone focus in this series.
The left-handed hitter is slashing .305/.408/.665. His 41 homers and 74 walks are marks that lead the big leagues. He’s also driven in 84 RBI, mostly while hitting second or third. He’s well on his way to his second MVP award and it’s been his bat that has done the most damage.
Scherzer, in two starts for Texas, has been every bit the quality arm that Texas needed. Despite a rough first inning in his Rangers debut, Scherzer has given up just one run in the 12 innings that followed. He’s struck out 15 in the 13 total innings he’s pitched and earned wins in both outings. This, however, represents Scherzer’s biggest challenge while with Texas thus far; even though the Angels are on the fringes of contention, they are still technically contenders, playing for a season longer than 162 games. This will only be Mad Max’s 7th career outing against the Angels, but in the six starts against them, he has a 4-1 record with a 2.45 ERA, allowing fewer than 1 WHIP.
The Angels will send Patrick Sandoval on Monday night, the 26-year old California native who has pitched admirably for the Halos. In 20 starts, Sandoval has a 3.86 ERA with opponents hitting .245 against him with a 1.37 WHIP. Over five starts dating back to July, Sandoval has been stout, putting up a 1.86 ERA in 29 innings with 27 strikeouts to just 16 hits. In his most recent start, against the Giants, he threw 6 ⅔ innings, giving up just two runs on five hits.
Montgomery is coming off a tough-luck loss to the Athletics, one of the scant few blemishes in the Rangers’ 10-2 August record. The lefty deadline acquisition certainly pitched well enough to earn the victory, allowing just two runs in six innings. The Rangers, however, couldn’t muster any offense, and so the two runs would lead to the 10th loss on the season for the 30-year old former Cardinal.
In 12 innings with Texas, however, Montgomery has just allowed two runs in each of his two games, earning the win in his debut. Montgomery has only faced the Angels twice in his career and has given up just three runs overall.
The Angels, meanwhile, will send Lucas Giolito to start against Montgomery on Tuesday. Giolito, who came over from the White Sox, has started in three games for Los Angeles, but hasn’t exactly been the shot in the arm that they’ve needed to keep them in contention. In just 14 innings, Giolito has given up 15 runs, matching his run total for all of July. Giolito did pick up the win in his last outing, also against San Francisco, giving up three runs in six innings of work.
It will be Jon Gray’s turn against the Angels in the finale on Wednesday. The 30-year-old righty is coming off one of his best starts in a couple of months, having gone seven innings of no-walk, shutout baseball against the Giants. Gray is hoping to continue riding the great mechanics of that start, where he heavily featured a slider that missed a lot of bats. Gray missed the Angels the last time that Texas took them on, but hopes to make his mark against the Halos in this series.
Los Angeles could potentially start Griffin Canning in the closing game, the contest that had been earmarked for Ohtani. Canning was just reinstated from the injured list, having last pitched on July 25th against the Tigers, going five innings and giving up just two runs before suffering tightness in his calf which landed him on the IL.
Meanwhile, second place Houston is about to take on the Miami Marlins. The Rangers finished a sweep of Miami before their road trip out West last week, but the Fish are still holding on to the last wild card spot in the National League and are fresh off a series win against the New York Yankees.
The Angels might be falling fast out of contention, but it would appear that they aren’t in a hurry to call it quits just yet and are at least willing to impact the teams ahead of them vying for the AL West title.
Do you think the Rangers will be able to grab a series win from the division rivals from Orange County? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.