The Cubs begin a long western swing in Anaheim.
The Cubs will have a reunion with Kyle Hendricks this weekend, though he will not pitch in this series.
Just to show you how radically the Cubs have changed over the last year, there are only 10 players on the current Cubs 26-man active roster who were teammates with Hendricks last year: Ben Brown, Michael Busch, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, Shōta Imanaga, Daniel Palencia, Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson and Jameson Taillon.
For more on the Angels, here’s Jeff Joiner, an editor at the Angels site Crashing The Pearly Gates.
The Angels are improving thanks to a developing young core of Zach Neto (SS), Nolan Schanuel (1B), and Jo Adell (OF) with Logan O’Hoppe (C) having stretches that show a lot of promise. Any future success for the franchise will depend on getting more talent around these players, but they give Angels fans a reason to dream of brighter days ahead.
Unfortunately, a lack of organizational depth is again keeping the Angels from being a winning team. Taylor Ward is having a career year with 29 HR and a 121 wRC+ and a healthy Mike Trout is putting up a 125 wRC+ on the year. But the holes elsewhere in the lineup have been devastating. The team leads all of MLB in strikeouts and is near the bottom in batting average and in the bottom third in OBP. So while the Angels rank third in all of MLB in home runs, too many are solo shots and they strand too many baserunners.
Yusei Kikuchi has been the Angels’ best starter this season but the Cubs will not face him. Jose Soriano is either really good or really bad and will toe the rubber in the series finale. Kenley Jansen has been an anchor in the bullpen but the middle relief getting to him is shaky.
One note to Cubs fans, this team tends to play to the level of its competition. So while the overall record is below .500, the Angels are 6-0 against the Dodgers and swept Boston earlier in the season. And with guys swinging for home runs up and down the order, they are in a lot of exciting games.
Fun facts
The Cubs have played only 23 games against the Angels, second fewest against any current team. They have played 22 against the Rays. The Cubs are 13-10 vs. the Angels, but only 5-5 in California. In their previous visits, they won two of three in 2004, split two games in 2013, won twice to begin 2016, then lost all three games June 6-8, 2023.
(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
Probable pitching matchups
Friday: Ben Brown, RHP (5-7, 5.91 ERA, 1.455 WHIP, 4.20 FIP) vs. Tyler Anderson, LHP (2-8, 4.77 ERA, 1.417 WHIP, 5.65 FIP)
Saturday: Cade Horton, RHP (7-4, 3.08 ERA, 1.198 WHIP, 3.87 FIP) vs. Jose Soriano, RHP (8-9, 4.00 ERA, 1.379 WHIP, 3.70 FIP)
Sunday: Matthew Boyd, LHP (12-6, 2.61 ERA, 1.041 WHIP, 3.28 FIP) vs. Victor Mederos, RHP (0-1, 5.54 ERA, 1.846 WHIP, 6.15 FIP)
The above lists are pure speculation on my part (and thanks also to Jeff Joiner from Crashing The Pearly Gates for the Angels list), so let’s just call them tentative for now. Jameson Taillon might go Sunday. No pitchers were listed at MLB.com for the entire series at posting time for this series preview. In fact, at posting time for this article, the Cubs and Angels were the only teams that didn’t have a Friday starter listed. It’s TBD heaven.
Times & TV channels
Friday: 8:38 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Saturday: 8:38 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Sunday: 3:07 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Prediction
As Jeff Joiner said, the Angels seem to play better vs. good teams, so the Cubs cannot look past them. (Hint: The Cubs are a good team.)
The Cubs, though, look to have the advantage in at least two of these three starting pitching matchups, and so I believe the Cubs will take two of three here.
Up next
The Cubs have Monday off, then head up the coast to San Francisco to face the Giants in a three-game series beginning Tuesday evening.
Category: General Sports
