The Yankees will play a 3-game series against the Los Angeles Angels
After winning two out of three games against Toronto, the Yankees will continue their nine-game home stand with a 3-game series against the Angels. To conclude the home stand, they will play the Texas Rangers, who have taken a step back after winning the World Series last year.
The 3-game series against the Anaheim Angels was supposed to start on Monday night but it was delayed to tomorrow when they will play a double header at Yankee Stadium. There is inclement with lots of rain and flooding that started at about 6 pm.
The Angels will be the second of five consecutive series that the Yankees will play against teams that are below .500. The Yankees started this 16-game stretch with a 2–1 series win over Toronto and they are now 7–2 in their last nine games with three consecutive series wins after going 11–22 in their previous 33 games.
They have seemed to turn the corner and a big part of the reason is that the bullpen is improved recently and the team has averaged 7.9 runs in their last nine games after averaging 4.3 runs in their previous six games when they went 2–4. The Yankees had the second worst record in MLB during their 11–22 stretch but before that 11–22 stretch began they had a 49–22 record, which was the best record in MLB.
The Angels are 14 games below .500 at 49–63. They have unfortunately lost Mike Trout to a season-ending injury after suffering another meniscus tear last week. He has been an All-Star in 11 out of his 14 seasons, including eight in a row, and he has finished in the top five of MVP voting nine times. He has been the best player in baseball for a lot of his career but has only played in one playoff series. He only had a .220 average with a .325 OBP this season but his OPS+ was a good 136.
The Angels previous series was a surprising two out of three series win in Anaheim against the Mets but since June 30, the Angels have gone13–17 in their last 30 games and they have gone 8–8 since the All-Star break. The Angels this season have had losing streaks of three games six times, they have had one four games losing streak and they have had three five games losing streaks.
The Angels have a -96 run differential, which is second worst in the American League. They have hit the 12th fewest homers out of the 15 teams in the AL, they have scored the 12th fewest runs out of the 15 teams, the have the 11th worst OBP (.306), the 12th fewest doubles and the 12th worst OPS. On the pitching side, their ERA is the 13th worst out of the 15 teams (4.54), they are tied with Tampa Bay for the 12th fewest quality starts, they have the 12th worst WHIP and only the historically bad Chicago White Sox have allowed more walks than the Angels have in the American League.
The Angels only have three active primary players with an OPS+ above 100, which is league average. The Yankees are led by MVP candidates Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Judge has a 41 homers, 103 RBI, a 219 OPS+, a 1.157 OPS and 277 total bases, which all lead the league. His .322 average is impressively third in MLB. He is on track to win his second MVP in three years. Since July 21, he has an impressive .435 average (20–46) with one double, seven, homers, 17 RBI and 18 walks with four intentional walks in the series against the Blue Jays.
Another player who has been hitting very well recently is Anthony Volpe. Since the All-Star break, he has improved his approach, he has been barreling the ball more, he has been hitting the ball hard and hitting the ball to all fields. This is similar to what he did the first 13 games of the season when he had a .373 average in that span. Since the All-Star break, he has a very good .359 average (23–64) with four doubles, five homers, 12 RBI and five steals. He has increased his average from .245 to .261 and his OPS from .666 to .715. The only thing he needs to improve is his walk rate since he only has one walk in the 15 games since the All-Star break.
DJ LeMahieu has been a pleasant surprise recently. He had the game winning RBI in the last game of the Toronto series and in his previous start he had his first career six RBI game. In his last two starts, he is 3–8 with one double, one homer and eight RBI. His has three hits in those two games after having just four hits in his previous 15 games (4–36). It would be a positive for the team if he can continue to hit well.
Luis Gil has been a real positive in his last few starts after previously struggling. He did not pitch in the Blue Jays series but will pitch against the Angels in the doubleheader. He has allowed one run in three of his last four starts and had a very good 3.33 ERA in his five starts in July. Gil had a 6.45 ERA in June after allowing 12 runs in his last two starts of that month. Gil has the best ERA in the Yankees rotation at 3.20.
Gleyber Torres, who was benched for not hustling on the first game of the Blue Jays series, would potentially lose time if LeMahieu continues to hit well since then LeMahieu could play third and Jazz Chisholm could play second. The Yankees are 6–1 with Chisholm in the lineup and he has a .300 average (9–30) in the seven games and he hit four homers in his first three games with the team. In Torres’s last eight games, he has a .212 average (7–33) with six RBI.
Marcus Stroman did not pitch well in the first game of the series, which led to the loss in that game. He allowed seven earned runs with eight hits and a walk in just 2.2 innings when Aaron Boone needed to pull him from the game. He needs to be very precise with his pitches and pitch to the corners and he has been off recently. He threw just 40 of his 64 pitches for strikes. In his five starts in June, he had a 5.13 ERA and in his four starts in July, he had a 5.50 ERA.
He has only had one start in his last 10 starts where he pitched at least six innings and allowed three runs or less, which was on June 22 when he allowed three earned runs in 6.2 innings. He had a very good 3.15 ERA after that start on June 22 but in his last six starts since then his ERA has gone up nearly a full run to 4.10. As of now he would not be in the playoff rotation after pitching well to start the season.
Stroman, who grew up in Long Island and rooted for the Yankees, has given back a lot over the years has continued to give back to the community this season with the Yankees. Stroman, through his Height Doesn’t Measure Heart Foundation, will award two $25,000 scholarships to two Bronx high school students tonight. The scholarship will cover the students’ freshman year expenses. Stroman has dedicated $200,000 over the next five years to HS students.
