The Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays open a three-game series Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla., and the two American League clubs are trending in the opposite direction of the positions they occupy in the standings.
Holding down last place in an AL West where every team is under .500, Los Angeles has played its best baseball lately, including a season-high four-game winning streak that started with a home sweep of the Texas Rangers last weekend.
In Detroit on Thursday, manager Kurt Suzuki’s squad won for the fifth time in six outings with a 7-1 shellacking of the AL Central’s last-place Tigers.
Mike Trout had two doubles, two RBIs and two walks, while Vaughn Grissom finished with a double and two RBIs as the Angels captured their second straight series after losing nine of their prior 10.
Facing a Tampa Bay team that has lost four straight, the Angels will be without first baseman Nolan Schanuel (left calf inflammation) after he landed on the 10-day injured list Wednesday before a 4-0 loss to the Tigers.
“I think it’ll be a lot better, because I’ve been playing on it banged up for a little while now,” said Schanuel, 24, who is batting .262 with four homers and 24 RBIs in 49 contests. “I’ve just kind of been dealing with the pain, and it just got too much for me, and I think once it heals up, I hope it’ll go better than it’s been.”
With wins over Texas and the Chicago White Sox in his past four starts, Angels rookie right-hander Walbert Urena (2-4, 2.58 ERA) will make his eighth start as he faces Tampa Bay for the first time.
The AL East-leading Rays, who are facing their first AL West opponent, are happy to leave the Northeast and return to Florida.
After splitting two games at the New York Yankees, the Rays limped out of Baltimore 1-4 on their road trip after enduring an 11-2 trouncing Wednesday from the Orioles, who outscored Tampa 26-10 in the three-game sweep.
Suddenly, a Tampa Bay pitching staff that had largely shut down the majors is starting to show some cracks as the bats have cooled down.
Following the split against the Yankees, which broke a streak of eight consecutive series wins, manager Kevin Cash’s frontrunners flubbed the series with the O’s.
In the opener, they wasted three extra-inning leads in a disappointing 9-7 defeat in 13 innings. On Tuesday, they lost reliever-turned-starter Griffin Jax, who was struck in the middle of the back on a line drive by Leody Taveras and is day to day.
Left-hander Steven Matz surrendered five runs in the first and ultimately six total over three innings in his second start — and his worst for the team — since returning from the IL.
Series-opening starter Nick Martinez (4-1, 1.51) and his dazzling changeup line up for Friday.
“I don’t think any team goes into it thinking like, ‘Oh, he’s not going to throw his changeup,'” Cash said of the righty. “They know it’s coming, but it’s been that good.”
Per MLB.com, the 35-year-old Martinez is the 17th pitcher since 1900 to craft 10 straight starts yielding two runs or fewer to start a season.
In 14 appearances (nine starts) against the Angels, he is 3-3 with a 2.88 ERA and 0.99 WHIP.
–Field Level Media
