The Los Angeles Angels have won two against Seattle, and another win would clinch the series.
The Los Angeles Angels have a chance to get a rare series win against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night, and it’s also an opportunity to finally stave off that 100-loss season that’s been looming as a near certainty for weeks now.
But the Angels have shown a spine against Seattle, and they’ve won back-to-back games in the Pacific Northwest to give themselves a chance to at least avoid this ignominious feat.
More importantly, the Halos have also hit. This is a relatively new development, and it’s resulted in 13 runs in two games against a quality Seattle starting rotation.
The offense has come from everywhere as well. Zach Neto has been the staple, just as he has last year. Neto’s average and OBP have both been a disappointment at .241 and .329, respectively, but Neto has been able to get 27 homers in a strange season in which he spent the first half chasing and the second finding himself to finally provide the kind of production to which Angels fans have become accustomed.
This game is also an opportunity to hopefully celebrate the season of starter Ryan Johnson. The right-hander has gone from being one of the most abused pitchers in the Angels farm system, which is saying something given how many victims there are, to a promising young pitcher who’s in line to be a key part of the rotation next year.
Johnson has given up a total of nine runs in his last five starts over a stretch of 27-2/3 innings. He’s not consistently giving the Halos the length they’d like to see just yet, but the numbers Johnson is putting up are far better than what Johnson was giving the Angels early on. His ERA is still high at 4.93, but that’s deceptively given how badly the right-hander struggled in some early starts.
The key to Johnson’s success is his newfound ability to keep his composure. Johnson frequently fell apart when opponents generated traffic early on, but he’s actually become impressive when it comes to working his way out of jams.
As for Seattle, they appear to have mailed in the rest of the season after being knocked out of the playoffs a couple of weeks ago. They’ll send Kade Anderson to the mound, and Anderson has been an up-and-down hurler lately who’s eithe rbeen very good or simply bad. The Angels are hoping it’s the latter, as a win would allow them to avoid triple-digit losses.
