By: Willie Bee
No team is hotter than the Angels, in fact. Mike Scioscia's squad has won 11 of 12 and 15 of the last 18 to get back into the postseason picture that looked bleak when LA opened August by losing 13 of its first 18 games that month. The Angels have pulled themselves to within 2.5 games of the A's who lead the American League wild card race, and both crews are still very much in the AL West chase where the Texas Rangers are 3.5 ahead of Oakland.
Game 1 pits a pair of righthanders on the mound in Anaheim for the start a little past 10 PM (ET). The A's will turn to Jarrod Parker while Dan Haren goes for the Angels, who opened as -160 favorites on the MLB odds board, but can be found for -155 at some shops listed by SBR odds. Monday's total sits in the 7.5 to 8 range, depending where you make your wagers.
Both squads bring win streaks into the series, Oakland 's at three after sweeping the Mariners inSeattle over the weekend and LA sitting on six straight dubyas with the aforementioned broom job in Oakland last week followed by a weekend sweep at home over the Detroit Tigers.
No team is hotter than the Angels, in fact. Mike Scioscia's squad has won 11 of 12 and 15 of the last 18 to get back into the postseason picture that looked bleak when LA opened August by losing 13 of its first 18 games that month. The Angels have pulled themselves to within 2.5 games of the A's who lead the American League wild card race, and both crews are still very much in the AL West chase where the Texas Rangers are 3.5 ahead of Oakland.
It's the last series on the regular season slate between the two rivals, so the pressure is really on the Angels to make it count and close the gap with the Athletics. Taking all three in Oakland last week left LA with an 8-7 edge this year with the last nine between the clubs played up north. The A's won four of the first six played here in Anaheim back in April and May, all but one of those failing to reach the total.
Parker suffered one of those losses to the Angels last week, though his effort on the mound wasn't to blame. The rookie went seven innings and allowed just two runs; Oakland relievers let in four more late in a 6-1 loss. That halted a string of four straight outings by Parker that went into the win column for the A's.
He has pitched pretty well against the Halos all season with a 3.05 ERA and fantastic 19:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio in three starts covering nearly 21 innings. The Oakland lineup has responded with just two runs in those games, however, and the Angels won them all.
Dan Haren will be looking for his third straight win, but just his first at home since late-July. His last two assignments in Anaheim were disasters with the righty combining for just seven innings of action while giving up 12 runs (10 earned).
Like Parker, Haren has some nice stats against Monday's opposition though LA's victory a week ago is the only one in the three starts. Haren's 2.89 ERA in those three games are accompanied by allowing Oakland hitters to bat just .209 against him.
Each team will be without a key member of its starting rotation for the series. Oakland 's Brandon McCarthy is just lucky to be alive after taking an Erick Aybar liner off his head last Wednesday. He remains hospitalized after surgery and will obviously miss the rest of the season, if not more.Jered Weaver could return at some point this series after dealing with a shoulder issue that caused him to miss his last start. We should know more after he throws on the side Monday.
I'm going to get behind both hurlers tonight and their penchants this season for good efforts against these lineups. I will be adding the UNDER in Anaheim to my MLB picks tonight .
Free MLB Pick: UNDER 7.5 (-105) +++
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