Game: Baltimore Orioles @ Los Angeles Angels
Time: 9:38 p.m.
Odds: Orioles -175, Angels +145
Total: 9
The Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels will meet on Monday night in Anaheim, California, for the first game of a three-game series. The Orioles, who are competing for the AL East title, defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-5 on Sunday to win two of the three games in Phoenix. Baltimore (85-51) maintains a two-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
The Oakland Athletics, the team with the second-worst record in the majors, swept the Angels (64-73) in a series over the weekend. On Sunday, the Angels had a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning when the A’s came back to win 10-6. Too many errors and subpar pitching caused the collapse.
With a combination of promising young stars and seasoned players, the Orioles have surprised baseball critics by being competitive the whole season. On July 19, Baltimore took over first place in the AL East and they have held on ever since.
The Angels traded prospects for seasoned reinforcements on a club that had been decimated by injury on August 1 because they believed they were playoff candidates. It was a total failure. The Angels had a miserable August, going 8-19, and last week they waived six players as part of a money dump to get the team under the luxury tax threshold for 2023.
While this was happening, the Orioles had a scorching 18-9 month of August, making Brandon Hyde the early favorite to win AL Manager of the Year. Baltimore is expected to make its first postseason appearance since 2016 under Hyde.
Grayson Rodriguez (4-3, 5.03 ERA) of the Orioles will start the game on Monday. The Angels’ left-hander Kenny Rosenberg (0-0, 6.43), who was called up from Triple-A and has only pitched seven innings of relief in the majors this year, will be Rodriguez’s opponent. Rosenberg has never faced Baltimore.
In his last seven starts, Rodriguez has pitched admirably, going 2-1 with a 2.32 ERA and just 26 hits allowed in 42.2 innings. Hyde praised Rodriguez’s performance after he gave up just one hit in six scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox in his previous start last Monday. Rodriguez might not look like the same pitcher the Angels faced on May 15. In just 3.1 innings, he gave up eight earned runs on nine hits in a 9-5 loss. Rodriguez allowed three-run homers to Shohei Ohtani and Chad Wallach in that game, the latter of which traveled 456 feet.
Closer Felix Bautista (33 saves), who was placed on the injured list on August 26 due to a UCL injury, is still out. Without him, the Orioles’ bullpen will be manned by Yennier Cano and Jorge Lopez to handle the high-stakes innings.
The Angels have lost six of their last seven games. Part of the problem is pitching. The Angels are giving up too many runs. In five of their last seven games, LA has allowed at least six runs. The Over has hit in 30 of the Angels’ last 51 games. That includes five of the last six.
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