As if the Los Angeles Angels' season wasn't hard to watch enough through the first half, not the team has to face Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal with the series on the line.
The Los Angeles Angels are having yet another mediocre, postseason-less season after somewhat of a promising first 20 games.
The Angels should be sellers, which seems obvious, until you realize how the franchise operates under owner Arte Moreno. He’s a stubborn owner who doesn’t want to admit defeat, meaning he doesn’t want to part ways with valuable pieces that can bring back a haul of elite prospects in a seller’s market.
We’ll see if interim general manager John Mozeliak can convince Moreno to let him move their best trade chips to signal a rebuild, but in the meantime, the Angels have a couple weeks to field calls for potential trades before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
One of the best pieces Los Angeles has to offer is left-handed starter Reid Detmers, who cooked the Detroit Tigers in the series opener on Friday, but didn’t come away with the win. He tossed six scoreless innings and allowed just four hits while striking out seven, but a two-run ninth inning rally by the Tigers cost Detmers his fourth win of the season.
Veteran reliever Kirby Yates, who is likely to be moved at the deadline, allowed a two-run double to rookie second baseman Hao-Yu Lee with two outs in the inning, eventually losing 2-1. It was a fitting beginning to the second half for the Halos.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Tigers are starting ace left-hander and back-to-back American League Cy Young Tarik Skubal while the Angels start right-hander Grayson Rodriguez in the middle game of the series on Saturday.
Skubal hasn’t been as effective as he was over the last two years, but he’s still one of the best pitchers in the world. The 29-year-old is 5-5 with a 3.09 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 89 strikeouts to 11 walks through 13 starts (75.2 innings).
Skubal last worked against the Philadelphia Phillies and took the loss after pitching five innings of two-run ball on four hits and one walk while striking out five.
Rodriguez is still trying to find his footing with Los Angeles in his first season with the team. He is 3-2 with a 7.55 ERA, 1.74 WHIP and 24 strikeouts to 16 walks through seven starts (31 innings). Rodriguez last worked against the Minnesota Twins and allowed three runs on six hits and one walk over 5.1 innings; he failed to record a strikeout.
First pitch is at 7:07 p.m. PDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.
