Kansas City @ Los Angeles preview
Angel Stadium
Last Meeting ( Aug 9, 2010 ) Kansas City 4, LA Angels 6
Dan Haren was acquired to win games and help the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim remain in the AL West race. Thus far, he’s winless with his new team and the Angels are teetering toward becoming division also-rans.
Haren will look to turn his fortunes around in his fourth start for the Angels when he faces the Kansas City Royals in the second contest of a three-game series.
The Angels won Monday’s series opener for only their seventh win in 20 games. They are 0-3 in games Haren has started, with the right-hander suffering the loss in two of the contests.
Including his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Haren is winless over his last 10 starts, dating back to a June 12 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. He was 7-8 in 21 starts for Arizona.
Haren has an impressive 16-to-2 strikeouts to walk ratio with the Angels and a 3.60 ERA in 20 innings.
The three-time All-Star was acquired from Arizona for left-hander Joe Saunders and three minor-league pitchers.
At the time, Los Angeles envisioned making a serious run at overtaking the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, who had just acquired hurler Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners.
Instead, the Angels have continued to struggle and have fallen behind the Oakland Athletics into third place.
This will be Haren’s seventh career start against Kansas City. He is 3-1 with a 2.11 ERA.
Bryan Bullington will oppose Haren and the right-hander is trying to salvage a career that has gone nowhere since he was the No. 1 overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2002.
Bullington, who turns 30 next month, has never won a single major-league game. He takes an 0-6 career record into Tuesday, when he'll make his sixth start of his career and first since 2008.
Bullington has a 5.14 ERA in five relief appearances for Kansas City. The Royals are his fourth major-league team – he also played for the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays in addition to the Pirates.
Kansas City shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt went 3-for-3 in the opening game of the series and has always fared well against Haren with a .429 average in 21 career at-bats.
The Royals are taking a look at rookie first baseman Kila Ka’aihue. The 26-year-old left-handed hitter went 0-for-4 on Monday and is just 1-for-16 since being recalled.
Ka’aihue was batting .319 with 24 homers and 78 RBIs for Triple-A Omaha before being promoted on Aug. 1.
Bobby Abreu was the hitting star for the Angels in the opener with three hits, including a homer. Abreu matched his season high with four RBIs.
Abreu raised his RBI count to 64, second on the team to Torii Hunter’s 70. Hunter will miss Tuesday’s game as the final contest of a four-game suspension.