Leading Off: Los Angeles Angels
DJ LeMahieu, about to launch another home run (probably) (AP).
The Yankees head limping back into the Bronx to face the Angels for four games and they need a pick me up badly. Fortunately, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California are more punching bag than not in recent years, so this could be just what the Yankees ordered. Let’s dive into the recap as we survey the wreckage from this weekend.
2021 Angels So Far
The 2021 Angels are about the same as their 2020 counterparts, and 2019 and so on - good enough to make you think they might have a shot at contention, but bad enough to waste the best player in baseball’s prime years sitting home in October. This version of the Angels is even more frustrating because they have TWO best players in baseball - Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Every team should be so lucky to have two players this good, but if there’s one lesson the Angels and their fans have learned, it’s that one player does not a great team make. The 37-40 of the 2021 Angels is proof positive of this fact and it’s getting to the point of absurdity.
Offensively, this is one of the better teams in the league, as Anaheim ranks 5th in runs scored and 4th in home runs. The key hitters in the lineup are Ohtani, Anthony Rendon and Jared Walsh (Trout and Justin Upton, the other good Angels hitters, are on the IL). Ohtani in particular has been MVP caliber before even factoring in his pitching, with 24 home runs and 56 RBI to go along with his .998 OPS. Rendon has had a down year, but is always a threat at the plate. The problem with the Angels lineup isn’t these hitters, but the fact that they are surrounded by the David Fletchers, Kurt Suzukis and Taylor Wards of the world. However, the offense isn’t the main problem for the Angels - this group is an above average unit overall.
The pitching numbers for Anaheim are ugly. The staff’s 14th place ranking in the American League is particularly heinous given that this team has aspirations of contention. The only pitcher pulling his weight is, not shockingly, Shohei Ohtani, who has 2.58 ERA. The rest of the group all have ERA’s upwards of 4.50, with Dylan Bundy’s 6.68 ERA and Jose Quintana’s 7.12 ERA looking particularly bleak. In the bullpen, Raisel Iglesias is closing games for the Angels, backed up by Mike Mayers, Steve Cishek and Tony Watson. The bullpen is average - it’s the starting rotation which really has torpedoed the Angels’ chances at a playoff berth.
Pitching Matchups
Monday: Dylan Bundy vs. Michael King
The Yankees start off the week by seeing an old friend - the ex-Orioles ace Dylan Bundy returns to pitch in the Bronx. Bundy never truly fulfilled his promise in Baltimore, pitching to a 4.69 ERA, but seemed to break out in Anaheim in 2020 with a 3.29 ERA in the shortened season. However, he has taken a step backwards in a major way with a 6.96 ERA this season. Bundy is getting knocked around in each outing and has a home run rate of 5.1%, a major increase from last year. If you wanted to nominate a most disappointing Angel, he might be the one to choose. Bundy gave up two runs in four innings to Detroit last time out, which was an improvement over giving up seven in his previous start against Oakland. Somehow, he was even on my fantasy team this year. Here is a carefully selected Gary Sanchez home run off of Bundy from the 2019 season for posterity.
Mike King takes the mound for the Yankees and he will be carrying a 4.05 ERA into this start. In his last time out, he gave up some early runs but the Yankees came back and ultimately bailed him out in their comeback victory. King has been struggling all year in the first inning, so it will be instructive to see if tonight’s outing is any different.
Tuesday: Andrew Heaney vs. Jameson Taillon
Heaney gets the start in Tuesday’s game and he is another Angels pitcher having a mediocre year, in a shocking turn of events. His 4.72 ERA and mere mediocrity rather than abject poor performance make him one of the more valuable Angels starters. Heaney has consistently been the same pitcher year after year - lots of strikeouts, but also lots of walks and hits as well. Case in point - his last start against San Francisco, where he struck out ten but also gave up five runs as well. In his career against the Yankees, Heaney has pitched to a 3.47 ERA in four starts. He’ll be faced by Jameson Taillon, who will be starting twice in the Bronx this week, his favorite place to pitch (3.04 ERA at home vs. 11.12 ERA on the road). Taillon had his best start out last time against the Royals, giving up one run in 6.1 innings. He’ll look to post back to back quality starts this time around.
Wednesday: Shohei Ohtani vs. Domingo German
The man, the myth, the legend - Shohei Ohtani takes the mound at Yankee Stadium for the first time in his career on Wednesday night. We covered his offensive and pitching excellence, but let’s reemphasize how incredible it is for him to be pitching and hitting at this level in general, much less at the level that he’s doing it at. Ohtani is the best thing about baseball right now and watching him in the Home Run Derby and hopefully the All Star Game as well will be a big lift to the popularity of the game in general. Instead of writing more about Ohtani, let’s just watch some video.
Domingo German will oppose Babe Ruth 2.0, looking to turn around his last run of poor starts. German has put up clunkers against Philadelphia, Oakland and Boston. He has a 0.82 ERA against the Angels in three career games and one start against them.
Thursday: Griffin Canning vs. Jordan Montgomery
Griffin Canning will face the Yankees in the series finale for the first time in his career. Canning has a 4.95 ERA this season, his first full year after a midseason callup in 2019 and the shortened season last year. His close to 5.00 ERA is driven by an outsized amount of walks and a WHIP that is close to 1.50 - not where you want to be. Canning has a 2.70 ERA in his last three starts, so that’s good news if you’re the Angels and looking for any positive pitching signs you can get. Opposing him will be Jordan Montgomery, who threw a quality start against Boston last weekend but still lost as the Yankees failed to score. Monty will be looking to win his fourth game of the year, which is kind of shocking considering he’s pitched in 15 games and has a decent ERA. Blame that Yankees offense if you haven’t already.
Yankees vs. Angels History
The Yankees and Angels haven’t been rivals in years, but in the 2000s, these teams were frequently at each other’s throats in the regular season and October. They squared off in 2002, 2005, and 2009, with the Angels winning the first two series and the Yankees winning the most recent one. Angel Stadium used to be a house of horrors for the Yankees whenever they travelled west, as they were only 22-33 in Anaheim from 2000-2010. The more recent decade was much kinder to the Yankees, as the Angels declined and New York went 44-27 against them after going 48-58 in the decade prior. Here’s a highlight from the last time the Yankees played the Angels in the playoffs, as a treat.
Thoughts Before the Series
It seems like the Yankees set new high water marks and reach new low points on a weekly basis, but this weekend has to be a new low. Given the opportunity to really make this division race close, the Yankees promptly went out and got manhandled by Boston. At Sunday’s game, my brother said it was “the worst beating he’s ever seen one team give to another team” and while this might be an exaggeration, it isn’t that far off base. The Yankees are getting owned by Boston and to a lesser extent, Tampa this season and it will likely spell death for their division chances unless they can figure this out fast. This team has wilted in the big moments all season long and this weekend series was the most damning loss yet. The 2021 Yankees are potentially the most confounding and frustrating team that we’ve had in a while, mostly because the potential is so high and the results are so mediocre.
The biggest blow in the Boston series was not any individual loss, but the Zack Britton injury, which happened on Friday night. Britton’s hamstring strain, which he felt mid inning causing him to leave the game, will ostensibly send him to the IL for only a short time, but even when he returns, it’s fair to wonder how healthy he actually is. In his first 4.1 innings, Britton did not look like the dominant ground ball pitcher that he has been for the Yankees since 2018. His ground ball rate, usually in the 70% range, was merely 50%, and his fly ball rate, usually around 5-8%, was 25%. The long Carlos Santana home run in Wednesday’s game was the first home run Britton had given up in nearly two years. Combining his shaky performance with the fact that he was unavailable early last week with soreness and his lack of a Spring Training makes it fair to wonder how good Britton is feeling. A longer IL stint to iron out any health issues might be best for the long term success of the Yankees bullpen.
Keys to the series? Win some games, for sure. After the disaster of this weekend, the Yankees need to win any and all games they can before the All Star Break to get out of fourth place and back into the postseason hunt. Winning all the non Shohei Ohtani starts would be great and heck, maybe even win that one too. The Angels are very beatable and handling Ohtani and Rendon at the plate will go a long way towards helping the Yankees’ chances. The most important thing is for them to restore the confidence that they lost in their matchups this weekend. Figuring out how to bop again would be very beneficial indeed.
Game time is 7:05 tonight - let’s get a win and get back on track! Go Yankees! (And for positive vibes, here’s a video from the last time these two teams played, which led to the Yankees clinching the 2019 AL East title.
