The Texas Rangers will wrap up their season series against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. The Rangers will send Kyle Gibson to the mound, who is 2-0 with a 3.48 ERA away from Arlington. The Angels will counter with Dylan Bundy who has all three losses in Los Angeles this season.This isn’t the first time these two pitchers are facing off this season as they battled on September 10 in Arlington where Bundy picked up the victory as he pitched a season-high 7.1 innings and allowed two runs on four hits while striking out 12. On the other hand, Gibson went 5.2 innings with five runs on ten hits. In that game, Jared Walksh and Mike Trout both homered off Gibson in that outing.
These two teams have had complete duds of a season as both looked like they were set up to take the next step to get into playoff contention. The Angels added Anthony Rendon in free agency while the Rangers added starting pitching. However, it has been an overall disappointment as Joey Gallo is batting .186 with 70 strikeouts. The Rangers haven’t had hitters do well and the Angels haven’t had much pitching.
Rangers Don’t Travel Well
If the Texas Rangers are on the road, expect to add a loss to their record. They are 5-21(19.2 winning percentage) which is the worst in the majors. This shouldn’t come as a complete shock when looking at the numbers and the history between these two clubs. The Rangers are 201-262 in their all-time record as the road team against the Los Angeles Angels, including a losing record in six of the last seven seasons.
But let’s get back to 2020 as the Rangers offense is atrocious away from Globe Life Park. As a team the Rangers have a .204 batting average, .262 OBP, .348 slugging and 86 runs scored as the visiting team. All of those are in the bottom three of baseball this season and are a major reason for the horrific 2020 season where they expected to compete for a Wild Card spot even before the expanded postseason was announced.
Trout + Pujols = Texas-Sized Nightmares
Two of the greatest hitters of all-time and occupy the same lineup, crazy right? Well they both hit the Texas Rangers well this season as Mike Trout is 8-for-30 with a pair of homers and Albert Pujols is 7-for-16 with a pair of homers as well. Trout has good numbers off Kyle Gibson in his career as he has a 1.162 OPS in 20 at-bats. Pujols has three homers lifetime against Gibson as well so he has to be careful about pitching to these two hitters otherwise it could be a quick call to the bullpen.
Pujols and Trout are doing incredibly well in September in addition to hammering the Texas Rangers. Albert Pujols is hitting .267 with three home runs and four walks. Those are all above his August numbers this season so it shows he isn’t taking the rest of the season off. Pujols recently passed Willie Mays for sole possession of the fifth spot of the career HR leaderboard with 662. He should be able to get to 700 before calling it a career so expect a couple more before the end of 2020. Trout is doing Trout things as in September he is .345 with four homers and 11 RBI. Trout also has more walks than strikeouts this month so look for Trout to keep hitting and continuing his MVP-level 2020 season.
Notable Trends
From Covers.com
- Los Angeles: 6-4 in games Bundy starts
- Los Angeles: 11-6 in September
- Texas: 2-8 in games Gibson starts
- Texas: 5-21 on the road
