Angels left-hander Michael Roth will become the first pitcher drafted in 2012 to start a major-league game on Wednesday. (Getty Images).
Manager Mike Scioscia threw a bit of a curveball Tuesday night, naming Michael Roth his starter for the rubber match of the Angels’ series against Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
Continue reading “Michael Roth, not Jerome Williams, will start for the Angels on Wednesday.” »
Josh Hamilton’s 4 for 4 performance Monday extended a career’s worth of success batting fifth, for whatever that’s worth. (Associated Press photo)
“I don’t know what it is about the five hole but it seemed to work,” he said.
You’d think Hamilton would have figured this out by now. Here are his career splits by batting order position:
This is one of those tricky stats because of all the variables involved. For one, the number-five hitter is slightly more likely to bat against relievers than a number-three or number-four hitter. Given a large enough sample size, there will be a noticeable difference. (This wasn’t the case last night, when Jason Frasor relieved Derek Holland after number-eight hitter Chris Iannetta batted and doubled in the sixth inning.)
More importantly, when you see a player like Hamilton who gets a plurality of his at-bats in the three-hole then moves to the five-hole on occasion, it’s often because the manager made the move based on matchups. This was the case last night. Maybe Holland pitched Hamilton differently because he didn’t want to face Howie Kendrick , who owns a 1.074 career OPS in 43 career head-to-head at-bats. Maybe he pitched Hamilton differently because Hamilton’s batting average was below .200.
Either way, it was a good matchup.
Mike Scioscia said that Hamilton is likely to move down in the lineup against right-handers tonight (Alexi Ogando) and tomorrow (Yu Darvish).
Maybe Scioscia will reconisder. There’s something about the five-hole.
Some bullet points for a Tuesday morning:
Josh Hamilton is playing the Texas Rangers today.
When the Angels and Rangers hooked up in spring training, that was enough to capture a few headlines. When the Angels visited Arlington, Texas in the opening week of the season, it captured even more.
Today, the story wasn’t about Hamilton facing his old team. That’s old news.
The story was in a lineup card that saw Hamilton batting fifth for the first time as an Angel and for the first time since July 29-31 of last season. Mark Trumbo will bat cleanup and Albert Pujols remains the number-three hitter against the Rangers and left-hander Derek Holland.
Continue reading “Slumping slugger Josh Hamilton is batting fifth against the Texas Rangers.” »
Derek Holland is 1-1 with a 1.64 earned run average in three starts for the Texas Rangers this season. (Associated Press photo)
The Angels’ opposing starter tonight entered the 2013 season with a 4.71 earned-run average and a 39-29 record. Derek Holland is three games into a new season and he’s already talking about winning a Cy Young Award.
So far he’s backing up the talk: Holland is 1-1 with a 1.64 earned-run average. His first win of the season came at the hands of the Angels back on April 5.
Holland may have bragging rights, but he may be the only Rangers starter who’s in a position to boast. Their pitching staff is experiencing a “crisis,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
So maybe it’s a good time for the Angels to be facing the Rangers, the current first-place team in the American League West. The Halos’ hole is deep enough that they will still be in third place in the division even if they manage a three-game sweep – following a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers.
First pitch is at 7:05.
Onto some bullet points:
