Los Angeles Angels (10-5) at Texas Rangers (10-5) Preview Game 1

The Texas Rangers host the Los Angeles Angels tonight for the start of a three-game series behind held at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Both teams are tied for the season 10-5 heading into tonight’s game with the Rangers looking to keep their first place position and the Angels look to grab first place from Texas. The Rangers ended the run for three consecutive division titles last year for the Angels and the Angels don’t look to allow that to happen again. This may be the perfect time for the Angels to catch the Rangers completely off-guard and take possession over first in the division.

The Rangers have now lost four of their last five games after being defeated by the New York Yankees in the final game of the series last night. The Angels, on the other hand, are on a five-game winning streak and will look to continue that this week in Arlington. However, the Rangers are 6-0 at home and will be vying for the best start in franchise history tonight with a win making their home record 7-0.

Last night against the Yankees, it was Adrian Beltre and Michael Young who showed the most success. Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz have still yet to get back into the swing of things and bat the way they were at the start of the season. But, being back at home will hopefully get them in their groove.

Pitching Matchups

The Rangers will place left-handed C.J. Wilson on the mound. Wilson is currently 1-0 for the season with an earned run average of 3.72 and 12 strikeouts.  So far this season, he has been allowing 3-4 runs on 6-7 hits. Last season, Wilson had five starts against Los Angeles with a record of 2-1 with an ERA of 3.72. No decision was given to Wilson his last time out after allowing the Detroit Tigers to get four runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings. Texas, overall, was 10-9 last season against their opposing team tonight.

The Angels will bring right-handed Ervin Santana to the h ill. He is 0-1 with an ERA of 3.74 for the season as well as 16 strikeouts. He has been allowing three runs on 6-7 hits in each of his three games this season. No decision was given to Santana last time out either after allowing three runs on six hits over seven innings although the team did defeat Cleveland 4-3. Against the Rangers, Santana has made 20 appearances and is 11-7 against Texas with a 5.44 earned run average. Santana only has two pitches although he is working on a split-finger fastball. He has a decent slider and a mid-90’s fastball according to Mark Saxon over at ESPNLosAngeles.com.

Pitchers vs. Hitters

LHP C.J. Wilson: There are only three batters with at least a .333 batting average against Wilson. Maicer Izturis and Howard Kendrick are both at .333 with three and four RBIs respectively and then Alberto Callaspo is hitting at .375. Torii Hunter is 4-for-14 with two home runs and six RBIs and Peter Boujos is 1-for-5 with the rest of the guys batting less than .200 against C.J.

RHP Ervin Santana: Yorvit Torrealba has the highest batting average against Santana at .667 being 2-for-3. Michael Young is 23-for-61 with 12 RBIs and 3 homers, Ian Kinsler is 11-for-34 with 3 RBIs and 1 homer, Elvis Andrus is 7-for-20 and Julio Borbon is 4-for-11 with the rest of the guys batting less than .300 against Ervin. Nelson Cruz, though, has three homers off Santana and four RBIs. David Murphy has five RBIs and Adrian Beltre has seven RBIs off Santana.