Oakland @ Los Angeles preview
Angel Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 14, 2011 ) LA Angels 4, Oakland 1
THE STORY: The chances of the Los Angeles Angels catching the Texas Rangers in the American League West are slim and their wild-card aspirations are also fading away. The Angels are five games behind the Rangers with six to play as they begin Friday’s three-game series against the Oakland Athletics. Los Angeles is three games behind the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race – a battle that also has the Tampa Bay Rays ahead of the Angels. Los Angeles suffered a huge blow Thursday when it lost to Toronto on Edwin Encarnacion’s 12th-inning homer. Jered Weaver starts Friday’s game and he is 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA in four starts against Oakland this season.
TV: 10:05 p.m. ET, CSCA (Oakland), FSW (Los Angeles).
PITCHING MATCHUP: Athletics LH Gio Gonzalez (14-12, 3.33 ERA) vs. Angels RH Jered Weaver (18-7, 2.41 ERA)
Gonzalez has won five of his last six decisions and can match his career high for victories by beating the Angels. Gonzalez is looking to become the first Oakland pitcher to win 15 games in consecutive seasons since Mark Mulder (2003-04). He defeated the Angels on Sept. 12 when he gave up two runs in 6 2/3 innings and then shut down the host Detroit Tigers in his last outing when he allowed just one run over seven innings. Gonzalez is 3-1 with a 2.10 ERA in four starts against Los Angeles this season. He is 6-2 with a 2.72 ERA in nine career outings. Alberto Callaspo is 8-for-20 against Gonzalez.
Weaver has won three straight decisions. He defeated the Baltimore Orioles in his last outing when he gave up two runs and six hits in six innings. Weaver had just two strikeouts against the Orioles and fanned just one hitter in seven innings when he defeated the Athletics in his previous start. Weaver is 10 strikeouts away from his second consecutive 200-K season. Weaver is 6-6 with a 2.90 ERA in 19 career starts against Oakland. Kurt Suzuki is batting .300 with a homer and five doubles in 40 career at-bats against Weaver.
ABOUT THE ATHLETICS (70-86): Oakland’s final six games are on the road. Rookie Jemile Weeks belted his first major-league homer in Thursday’s victory. The homer came in Weeks’ 379th at-bat and his 90-game homerless streak is the second-longest to begin an Oakland career behind Mike Bordick, who went 132 contests without going deep before hitting one in May 1992. Weeks collected three hits and scored three times. Coco Crisp had the game-winning single in the eighth. Josh Willingham added a run-scoring double for his 93th RBI of the season. David DeJesus has a .339 average in 69 career games against the Angels. He is hitting .313 in 32 career at-bats against Weaver.
ABOUT THE ANGELS (85-71): Los Angeles went 5-5 on a 10-game road trip that concluded with a four-game split in Toronto. The Angels’ remaining six games are all at home. Erick Aybar is batting .406 in September and has reached base in 34 consecutive games. Vernon Wells went hitless in five at-bats Thursday after four consecutive two-hit games. Rookie Mark Trumbo also went 0-for-5 on Thursday and is batting just .143 in 16 games against Oakland. Trumbo has fanned six times in nine at-bats against Gonzalez and has just one hit. Reliever Scott Downs hasn’t allowed a run in nine September contests to lower his season ERA to 1.21 in 58 appearances.
FINAL PITCH: Los Angeles is just 26-25 against its AL West rivals this season. First-place Texas is eight full games better at 34-17. The Angels close the regular season next week with three games against the Rangers.