Here we are in May and the Los Angeles Angels have a two and a half game lead on the Seattle Mariners in the AL West standings, sitting second behind Houston the division. After a slow start, the Mariners are trying to regain momentum while the Angels have managed to continue its strong play despite lackluster pitching and little support for Mike Trout in the lineup.
This series will be contested from Tuesday, May 2, 2017 through Thursday, May 4, 2017 at Safeco Field in Seattle. Thursday's clash is being shown live on MLB Network outside of the local markets.
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Pitching Matchups
James Paxton gets the start on Tuesday night for the Mariners and is coming off a seven-inning, scoreless outing against the Tigers where he struck out nine batters.
The young southpaw has been one of the best starters in the Major Leagues on the young season going 3-0 with a 1.39 ERA and 0.835 WHIP in 32.1 innings of work. He’s not allowed a run in four of his five starts though he did have one bad outing against Oakland where he allowed five runs in 4.1 innings.
Overall, Paxton has shown us flashes of what he’s capable of over the last few years, but has always been hindered by injuries. He’s healthy now and delivering, save for one bad outing.
The Angels will counter Paxton with Matt Shoemaker. The 30-year old right-hander is probably the surest thing in the Los Angeles rotation given injuries. He’s been a very dependable middle-of-the-rotation arm over the last few seasons and is coming off a two-run, five-inning start against the A’s. He’s allowed two runs in four of his five starts and six in the other, leading him to an inflated 4.73 ERA.
The Game 2 matchup evens out a bit with Ricky Nolasco toeing the rubber for the Angels against the Mariners’ Hisashi Iwakuma.
Nolasco was the Angels’ Opening Day starter and is 2-2 with a 4.13 ERA this season, but his FIP is much higher at 5.28 as he’s allowed seven home runs and has an artificially low BABIP. Nevertheless, he’s allowed three runs or less in four of his five starts. Iwakuma’s ERA is nearly identical to Nolasco’s at 4.15 and his FIP is also much higher at 6.60. He’s walking 3.8 per nine and has a strikeout to walk ratio of just 1.09. For as many red flags as there are for Nolasco, there are more for Iwakuma, but the 36-year old is 9-5 with a 2.76 ERA and 1.016 WHIP in 20 career games against the Angels.
Flipping over to the series finale, the Mariners will turn to Ariel Miranda who wasn’t even supposed to be in this rotation, but has—arguably—been the team’s second best starter behind Paxton. He’s been a godsend for this team since coming over in the Wade Miley trade last year. In his time in Seattle, he’s 7-4 with a 3.86 ERA and is 2-2 with a 3.81 ERA this year.
For the Angels, it will be Tyler Skagg’s turn in the rotation, but the young stud is dealing with an oblique strain that pushed him to the disabled list. Without him in the rotation, Daniel Wright could get the nod. He made a spot start last week. Either way, the Angels will be disadvantaged in this one.
Who's Hot?
The answer is always Mike Trout. He’s been worth 2.1 rWAR already this season and, if you can believe it, he’s been even better than year than years past, at least so far.
The reigning MVP is slugging .707 and has a .364 average and 1.151 OPS, giving him an OPS+ of 225. He’s been 125% better than the average Major Leaguer. That’s scary good.
Over the last week, Kole Calhoun has gotten hot, too. He’s 11-for-32 in that time, getting on base at a .364 clip and while Albert Pujols’ bat is still coming around, he’s as clutch as anyone in the game with seven RBIs in the last week, fourth most in the AL.
On the other side of the field, Nelson Cruz has been scorching hot. He’s now batting .315 with seven home runs, 23 RBIs and a 1.025 OPS, but as recently as April 18, he was hitting .218 with just two home runs. In his last six games, Cruz has hit five home runs, driven in 14, going 11-for-23 in the process.
Jean Segura has also been swinging a pretty hot bat since returning from the disabled list. The Seattle shortstop is 9-for-his-last-28 while Guillermo Heredia is 9-for-his-last-23. Both have a home run in that time.
Who's Not?
While Pujols is still driving in runs, he’s also struck out nine times in the last week. Danny Espinosa and Cameron Maybin are both struggling with the stick, too. Espinosa is batting just .170 and Maybin is just barely over the Mendoza line himself.
Defensively, the Angels have made 19 errors which is a bit of a surprise given Andrelton Simmons, Espinosa, Maybin and Trout are all quality defenders.
For the Mariners, Robinson Cano is just 5-for-his-last-25 with a homer and seven strikeouts and Taylor Motter who was getting at-bats in place of Segura and thriving is now just 3-for-20 this past week with eight Ks.
The Mariners’ bullpen gave up plenty of runs on Sunday as well with Dillon Overton and Casey Fien surrendering five earned runs in relief of Chase De Jong. The Mariners’ bullpen ERA is 5.80, second worst in baseball.
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