The baseball gods keep testing the New York Yankees who continue to see star players going down like flies here in the first month of the season. The Yankees next stop brings them to Anaheim where they will play the Los Angeles Angels for four games, including the third game on MLB Network on Wednesday night. New York will try to get through that game—and the series—without any more injuries while also trying to keep their head above water.
First pitch for the game between the Yankees and Angels is scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, 2019, at 10:07 p.m. ET at Angel Stadium. The matchup will be shown on MLB Network.
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Odds Analysis
The Yankees got the better of the Angels last year, winning five of the six meetings in the season series between the clubs, but that—of course—was a largely different Yankees team.
Right now, the Yankees are barely the Yankees. On Sunday, the Bronx Bombers sent out a lineup that included Brett Gardner hitting third along with Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela, Mike Ford, Austin Romine, and Tyler Wade in the final five spot.
Clint Frazier was hitting clean up and has looked good since getting the promotion, but he started the year in Triple-A for a reason. The team had a plethora of outfielders it considered better than him. Now, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton, and Aaron Judge are on the IL, Frazier may just be the best hitter on the team sans Gleybar Torres.
With Torres, Frazier, Luke Voit, and D.J. LeMahieu, the team does at least still have a top of the order with average or better bats. Frazier is doing his best not to go back as he’s hitting extremely well.
The Angels don’t have the excuses of injuries, but they have a very similar lineup except they do at least have Mike Trout in the heart of the order.
Trout is doing his typical Trout-like thing as he continues to get better proving wrong those that didn’t think that was possible.
He’s got a 1.192 OPS and is getting on base in more than half of his at bats. But the best players in the lineup around him are a 39-year old and hobbled Albert Pujols who that still has a good eye and some pop, but is only hitting .238 and a utility infielder turned everyday option at second base in Tommy La Stella who is hitting .222, but has four home runs.
Probable Pitchers
This is not going to be a game that features starters going into the seventh or eighth inning. In fact, these two aren’t likely to make it past six.
Felix Pena gets the ball for the Angels, going five innings in his last start. That was his longest of the season on his fourth time out.
Originally he was slated for the pen, but injuries have pushed him into a starting role. Just as they did last year when the then 28-year old made his first Major League start.
Pena did well in a fill-in role last year, throwing 19 games including 17 starts. In that time, he was just 3-5, but managed to pitch to a 4.08 ERA in 92.2 innings. His peripherals backed up that, too.
In his last start, he allowed three runs in five innings against Seattle. Before that, he allowed just one run in back-to-back games combined, though just went 8.2 innings in those games.
He’s shown he can give quality, but doesn’t typically last past the fifth. Of course, neither does his counterpart for the Yankees in this game as the Bronx Bombers go with the veteran C.C. Sabathia.
Sabathia is only two starts into the 2019 after starting the year on the IL. He’s thrown just 10 innings in those two starts, five in each, and has allowed just one unearned run on four hits and four walks overall. He’s struck out eight.
He doesn’t have the stuff he once did and isn’t a workhorse arm or an ace any longer, but he knows out to pitch and can give you five strong. He’s a winner and while pitchers wins don’t mean that much anymore. He’s one that can find a way to get the win regardless of the stuff he has any given day.
Overall against the Angels he’s been solid in his career, too, going 10-9 with a 3.77 ERA in 140.2 innings. That includes seven scoreless against them last year.
Live Betting
The bullpen is a big differentiator in this matchup. While a depleted roster helps balance things out offensively and a battle of shorter starters, if this becomes a close game into the later innings, the Angels are at a distinct disadvantage.
Cody Allen was added to be the closer and looked good in his first five outings, but has allowed a run in each of his last three, including two on a pair of home runs on April 19 against the Mariners. Given Allen had a down year last year with similar issues, this is a concerning continuation of a trend.
When the ninth inning falters, the rest of the pen falters as well though there’s not a ton of depth for Los Angeles here. Cam Bedrosian and Luis Garcia walk too many batters.
Ty Buttrey and Noe Ramirez have looked good. Hansel Robles has been okay, but that’s not enough to stack up against the Yankees.
Even with Dellin Betances on the IL, the team still has Aroldis Chapman shutting things down in the ninth and a litany of arms leading up to him.
Chad Green has had a rough start to the year that got even worse with three runs allowed and no outs on Sunday, but the rest of the arms have been better.
Adam Ottavino had a rough outing on Sunday, too, but was otherwise one of the more dominant arms until then. Zack Britton, meanwhile, is another former closer who can get the job done leading to Chapman.
MLB Pick
Despite the injuries, the Yankees do still have some quality big league hitters in Voit, Torres, Frazier, and LeMahieu. Look for that to help them score a few early runs on Pena and add on against a questionable Angels’ bullpen.
On the other side, while Trout is the best player in the game. There really isn’t anybody around him to cause issue. Sabathia is a proven veteran that will give the Yankees five quality innings and turn the ball over to an elite bullpen. While guys like Green are having some problems, there’s enough depth to the latter innings to close out the final four.
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MLB Odds: Yankees 6, Angels 4
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