The New York Yankees are on the West Coast on Wednesday to play the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday as they look to extend their lead in the American League East divisional race.
New York Yankees (-192, 8.5) vs. Los Angeles Angels
The Angels give Tyler Anderson, who has been their most effective starter this season with a 2.59 ERA with three earned runs or fewer allowed in nine of his 10 starts this season, the start on the mound but he appears to be in for some regression.
Anderson’s fielding independent is much higher than his ERA at 4.30 and is issuing a large number of walks despite not getting a lot of strikeouts with 6.2 strikeouts and 3.2 walks per nine innings.
The bullpen behind Anderson has also been on or the worst at the MLB level, entering Tuesday with a 4.81 ERA, which ranks 26th in the league while the Yankees entered the series as one of two teams in the league with a bullpen ERA under 3.00.
While the Yankees bullpen has been highly effective this season, their bullpen has recently suffered losses with Ian Hamilton just returning to the bullpen after dealing with COVID-19, Ron Marinaccio and his sub-2.00 ERA not available, and Jonathan Loasiga getting injured very early this season.
This puts pressure on starting pitcher Luis Gil to deliver length, which can be a challenge given his command issues. Gil is allowing the fewest hits per nine innings of any qualifying pitcher in the league with 4.4 hits allowed per nine innings but has actually allowed more walks than hits this season with 4.7 walks per nine innings allowed.
Supporting Gil is a lineup that entered Tuesday with nine more home runs in the month of May than any other team in baseball and is fifth in the league in runs per game scored on the road with five.
With the Angels averaging nearly 4.4 runs per game since Mike Trout was injured on April 29, Wednesday’s matchup sets up well for the hitters.
The Play: Yankees vs. Angels Over 8.5 Runs
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