The Angels are staring down an 11th straight losing season and just spent the trade deadline mailing pieces to their AL West rivals — two of which, catcher Logan O'Hoppe and pitcher Chase Silseth, now play for the team hosting them this weekend.
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SUN AUG 23 · 1:35 PM CT
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Angels
Rangers
Cal Quantrill gets the ball for Texas in Sunday's 1:35 PM CT series finale, and he's turned into one of the more dependable arms in that rotation since sliding into Nathan Eovaldi's turn in the rotation. He tossed 7 shutout innings against Washington in his last start, fanning 5 without issuing a walk, and he's already faced this Angels lineup once this month — 5 innings, 6 strikeouts in an Aug. 12 outing at Angel Stadium. The Angels haven't named a starter for the finale.
Los Angeles will be shorthanded doing it. Wade Meckler has been out since taking a 90-mph sinker off the head against Houston and is still working through concussion evaluation, while Nolan Schanuel has been dealing with side soreness that kept him out of Friday's series opener against Texas. Neither is a lock to be in the lineup. Texas has its own absences up the middle, with Josh Jung (calf) and Eovaldi (elbow) both sidelined, though the Rangers have held together well enough to stay in the mix of a crowded AL wild card race.
Sunday also doubles as a reunion of sorts. Los Angeles shipped O'Hoppe and Silseth to Texas ahead of the trade deadline as part of a full teardown that also sent away Jo Adell, Kirby Yates and José Soriano — the kind of housecleaning that comes with an 11th straight losing season on the horizon. The Rangers, meanwhile, are hanging around a wild card picture where a half-dozen teams sit within a couple games of the last spot, which makes beating up on a seller exactly the kind of series they need to bank.
Los Angeles Angels
Texas Rangers
Los Angeles isn't without a pulse, even at 51-78. They blitzed Houston 18-3 last week and have shown they can hang enough runs to make a mess of a shaky bullpen night. But the same team turned around and dropped a 1-2 decision to open this series Saturday — the kind of alternating-current baseball that's defined their season.
Los Angeles Angels
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Texas Rangers
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
For Texas, every game left is a step toward or away from October, and closing out a series against a club that's already sold off half its bullpen is the type of business a fringe contender has to handle if it wants to still matter in September.
