The 2020 regular season concludes on Sunday with game three of the Freeway Series, as the Angels travel to Dodger Stadium to take on the Dodgers. The Dodgers have had the number one seed in the National League playoffs sewn up for a while now, while the Angels were officially eliminated from playoff contention with their 9-5 loss to the Dodgers on Friday. The Dodgers have won the first four games between these two teams this year, through Friday night’s game. This preview was written before the middle game of the series on Saturday night.
Trout staying home for playoffs once again
For the eighth time in Future Hall of Famer Mike Trout’s nine-year career, the Angels will be staying home for the postseason. The MLB’s version of Barry Sanders has won three MVP awards, and has finished in the top four of MVP voting in each of his first eight full seasons, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him amongst the top four this season. The Angels haven’t had a winning season since 2015, and their only playoff appearance in the Mike Trout-era was a three-game sweep at the hands of the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 Division Series.
“It’s upsetting,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said on latimes.com after his team dropped to 26-32. “We gave it a nice run. Texas really helped us a lot tonight. We had a nice thing going on.”
Trout has averaged 30 home runs per season in his career, but that includes his first season in which he played just 40 games (and hit five home runs) and this year’s shortened season. Take out those seasons and he is averaging 35 home runs per season in his eight full-length seasons. With 17 home runs in 53 games this season, that would project to 52 home runs over the course of a 162-game season. He is tied for third in the majors with his 17 longballs, tied for sixth in RBI with 46, and is eighth in baseball with a .993 OPS.
David Fletcher leads the Angels with a .318 batting average this season, which is 14th-best in the majors. The Angels are averaging 5.09 runs per nine innings this season, and 1.50 home runs per game, both ninth-best in the majors. They are also the sixth-toughest team to strike out in baseball. The Angels are batting .249 this season with 85 home runs. The Angels pitching staff has an ERA of 5.05 and has given up 77 home runs.
Griffin Canning gets the starting assignment in the season finale for the Angels. He will try to even up his record, while keeping his ERA under 4.00. Canning enters the game with a 2-3 record and a 3.99 ERA. He is 1-2 with a 4.01 ERA on the road in 2020. Canning has faced the Dodgers once in his short two-year career, giving up three runs on five hits in six innings on June 10, 2019.
Dodgers preparing for eighth straight postseason
The Los Angeles Dodgers have known that they were going to the 2020 postseason for a long time. Unofficially they were in as soon as Commissioner Manfred expanded the playoff field from 10 to 16. They are head-and-shoulders above their National League competition, and as a result, are overwhelming favorites to capture their first World Series Championship in over three decades. The Dodgers have made the playoffs 13 times since a gimpy Kirk Gibson shocked the world and led Los Angeles to an upset win in the 1988 World Series over the Oakland A’s. All 13 of their postseasons since have ended with a loss, and Mookie Betts and Company are looking to change the Dodgers’ fortunes this season.
Speaking of Betts, he is trying to become just the second player in history to win an MVP Award in both the American and National Leagues. In just his first season in Los Angeles, he is hitting .292 with 16 home runs, 39 RBI, and a .925 OPS.
"I think anyone, whether it be a coach, a fan, a member of the media, can look at stats," manager Dave Roberts said about Betts on bleacherreport.com. "But when you see a guy day in and day out and the impact he has on a clubhouse, certainly, [he's been] considerably better than I expected—and I had lofty goals anyway."
He is not the only Dodger having an MVP-caliber season, though. Corey Seager is leading the team in batting average (.319), RBI (41), and OPS (.978). He is right behind Betts in home runs with 15. The Dodgers lead the majors in home runs with 113, while they are second in runs per nine innings (5.83) and OPS (.822). The Dodgers have five players in double figures in home runs this season. They are also an atypical power-hitting team in that they don’t strike out a lot, ranking second in baseball in fewest strikeouts per game at 7.78.
The Dodgers do not have a starter listed for Sunday’s game, as they may go with a bullpen game, so they can set their starting rotation for the best-of-three first-round series against either St. Louis, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, or even the New York Mets. There is a lot to still be decided at the bottom of the NL bracket, but whoever survives, the Dodgers will be waiting in Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
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