Two teams hoping to get back to the .500 mark before the All-Star break will square off Friday night when the Arizona Diamondbacks open a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif.
Arizona, at 46-48, is five games behind the San Francisco Giants for the final wild-card spot in the National League after splitting a four-game series at San Diego.
Los Angeles (45-48) is four games behind the Boston Red Sox for the final American League wild card after splitting a four-game series with Texas.
That’s not where the similarities end, either.
The Diamondbacks and Angels both are 4-6 over their last 10 games and on Friday will use starting pitchers who went to the University of Oregon after playing their prep baseball in the Las Vegas area.
Right-hander Ryne Nelson (5-2, 3.39 ERA), who led Basic High School in nearby Henderson, Nev., to a state title in 2016 before heading to Eugene, Ore., will start the series opener for Arizona. He will oppose veteran left-hander Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.19), who starred at Spring Valley High School, about a 10-minute drive west of the famed Las Vegas Strip.
Nelson is 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in one career start against the Angels (July 2023) and comes in off a 7-1 home win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday. He carried a perfect game into the sixth inning before catcher Freddy Fermin hit a one-out, line-drive single to center.
Nelson left after allowing one run on four hits in seven innings. He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter for the second straight game, throwing 86 pitches, 63 for strikes.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo acknowledged afterward he might have had to make a difficult decision if Nelson’s perfect-game bid was still intact later in the game.
“I had it in my mind. I was panicking,” Lovullo said of Nelson’s pitch count. “I was sweating. You know what I was gonna do and I don’t wanna say it out loud, but I gotta do what I gotta do. … If he was at 90 pitches or less (entering the ninth), he probably would have finished the game.”
As it was, Nelson’s seven-inning start was his longest of the season. The 27-year-old has a 1.53 ERA with 26 strikeouts and six walks in 29 1/3 innings over his last five games, all of which resulted in Arizona wins.
The 35-year-old Anderson is 6-4 with a 4.27 ERA in 19 career appearances (17 starts) against Arizona. He has gone 14 straight starts this season without picking up a win dating to April 18, when the host Angels blanked the Giants 2-0.
Despite the long winless drought, Anderson has pitched well in his last three starts — against Boston, Atlanta and Toronto — allowing a total of four runs on 14 hits over 15 2/3 innings (2.30 ERA) while striking out 14 and walking six. He pitched six shutout innings and allowed just four hits in a his team’s 4-0 victory at Atlanta on July 1 but departed with the game tied 0-0.
The Angels enter this series after a 11-4 home loss to the Rangers on Thursday as starter Jack Kochanowicz (3-9) continued to struggle, allowing eight runs on eight hits over 2 2/3 innings. Kochanowicz has a 6.03 ERA in 19 starts, highest among American League pitchers who have thrown at least 90 innings.
“Just bad,” Kochanowicz said of his performance. “I didn’t make the adjustments I needed to (make). It’s frustrating, obviously. I just have to throw the ball better.”
–Field Level Media
