{"id":16004,"date":"2011-06-06T13:02:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T18:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16004"},"modified":"2011-06-06T13:02:31","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T18:02:31","slug":"opening-game-of-series-tampa-bay-travels-to-anaheim-to-face-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/opening-game-of-series-tampa-bay-travels-to-anaheim-to-face-angels-16004\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Game of Series: Tampa Bay Travels to Anaheim to face Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays (30-29)\u00a0 AT Los Angeles Angels (30-31)<\/strong>
\nJune 6th, 2011 at 10:05 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 TAM -145, LAA +125<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 TAM -135, LAA +115<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 7<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 7.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 TAM- David Price, LAA- Tyler Chatwood<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Ben Zobrist is having an excellent season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rays have been struggling and now face a three game set against the Angels.\u00a0 On May 16th, the Rays were leading the AL East, but this poor stretch has plummeted them to third place tie, and they are four games out of the division lead.\u00a0 How bad is it?\u00a0 They’ve dropped 14 of their last 21, although 12 of those losses were against good teams – .500 or better.<\/p>\n

They’re amidst an 11 game road trip right now and this is their first chance to face a team with a losing record in a while.\u00a0 It could be an opportunity for the Rays to get back on track.\u00a0 Despite having lost 41 of their first 55 games in Anaheim, they have rallied to beat the Angels four of the last five.<\/p>\n

Having David Price step to the mound may make things easier.\u00a0 Price has pitched reasonably well this season, compiling a 6-5 record with a 3.52 ERA, though he has went 1-2 with a 4.39 ERA over his last four starts.\u00a0 Not getting run support isn’t helping.\u00a0 In his last four outings, he received 3.74 runs per game.\u00a0 Compare that to last season’s 6.00 and it’s easy to see why his record has wavered this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I was pretty lucky. This year, I haven\u2019t been so lucky,\u201d Price lamented. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve thrown the ball a lot better this year. \u2026 It\u2019s just not happening for me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking the mound for the Angels is rookie Tyler Chatwood.\u00a0 Chatwood was promoted last June after posting an impressive 1.77 ERA at A+ Chatwood.\u00a0 He struck out 70 batters in 81 innings at the single A level before posting a less impressive 3.82 ERA at AA Arkansas.\u00a0 His fastball reaches the mid 90s consistently and he has a nice curveball, as well.\u00a0 Though he was predicted to struggle in his first full major league campaign (PECOTA predicted a 5.74 ERA!), he has impressed and shown why he has drawn comparisons to Jim Palmer.<\/p>\n

But it’s tough for Chatwood to win when he receives absolutely no run support.\u00a0 Last game he held the Royals to five hits over 7 2\/3rds innings and pulled the loss in a 2-0 thriller…<\/p>\n

The Angeles have hit just .171 with runners in scoring position and they went 2 for 9 in such situations against the Yankees Sunday, causing a 5-3 loss.\u00a0 Torii Hunter merely chalked it up to the ordinary things that happen in a season:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the game of baseball. You\u2019re not going to figure it out. This is a crazy game,\u201d outfielder Hunter said. \u201cAll you can do is put the bat on the ball, and try to hit it hard and hope it works out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having Howie Kendrick back may make a difference.\u00a0 He’s hit .445 against the Rays and has the best average of players with at least 100 at bats against the Rays.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay is 1-4 SU in their last 5 games and the total has gone OVER in 4 of their last 6 on the road.\u00a0 The Rays are 1-5 SU in their last 6 on the road while they have gone 1-5 SU in their last 6 against the Angels, as well.\u00a0 The Rays are 4-1 SU in their last 5 on the road against the Angels and they are 5-15 SU in their last 20 road games in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

The Angels are 1-4 SU in their last 5 games and they are 2-4 SU in their last 6 at home.\u00a0 The Angels are 5-1 SU in their last 6 against Tampa Bay and they are 1-4 SU in their last 5 at home against the Rays.\u00a0 The Angels are 15-5 SU in their last 20 home games against the Rays.<\/p>\n

Chatwood has impressed so far, and this one could very well turn into a pitchers’ duel given the relative success of both pitchers – not to mention the struggling hitting of both teams.\u00a0 The total is set low at 7.5, and has shifted +0.5 runs since betting opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays (30-29)\u00a0 AT Los Angeles Angels (30-31) June 6th, 2011 at 10:05 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 TAM -145, LAA +125 Current Line:\u00a0 TAM -135, LAA +115 Opening Total:\u00a0 7 Current Total:\u00a0 7.5 SP:\u00a0 TAM- David Price, LAA- Tyler Chatwood The Rays have been struggling and now face a three game set against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":15620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[479,150],"class_list":["post-16004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16005,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16004\/revisions\/16005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}