Los Angeles @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Mar 25, 2010 ) Texas 6, LA Angels 9
The Texas Rangers are reeling after being swept by the Toronto Blue Jays. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, on the other hand, are riding high after sweeping the Oakland Athletics.
The Rangers and Angels, two teams coming off vastly different weekends, meet in Arlington for a two-game series, starting Monday night at Rangers Ballpark.
Texas will look to left-hander Derek Holland to right the ship, while the Angels will go with left-hander Scott Kazmir.
Holland will be making his second big league start this season. He looked good in his first start, allowing five hits with a walk and seven strikeouts in six scoreless innings.
And Holland would like to put together another solid start, which could cement his place in the Rangers’ rotation in place of Matt Harrison.
In three lifetime starts against the Angels, Holland is 1-2 with a 4.29 ERA.
Offensively, the Rangers would like to regain their early-season form after being shut out on Saturday and managing only two runs on Sunday.
Texas will have Elvis Andrus and Vladimir Guerrero back in the lineup after both were given a day off on Sunday.
The key will be for Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz to heat up. Those are two hitters that can carry the team and didn’t on Sunday. Hamilton finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, while Cruz went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.
But it won’t be easy for the Rangers offense to get going against Kazmir, a native Texan. In 10 career starts against Texas, Kazmir is 6-1 with a 2.05 ERA. At Rangers Ballpark, he is 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA in five starts.
Kazmir struggled in his last start on Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays, lasting five innings and needing 107 pitches to get through it. The worrisome thing for Kazmir is that it was his 12th consecutive start in which he didn’t pitch six-plus innings.
Kazmir has worked on his delivery, trying to go back to an over-the-top motion instead of a three-quarter delivery.
Offensively, the Angels have played well the past three games, outscoring the A’s by a 20-3 margin.
In Sunday’s victory, Howard Kendrick had three hits, Bobby Abreu had a two-run blast and Torii Hunter had a double.
The Angels will also look to find success on the road after enduring a 2-8 record on their last road trip.
Finally, this is the first of 19 times the two preseason favorites for the AL West will meet. Last year, the Rangers took the season series, 11-8.