The West Coast road trip brings the Red Sox to 3 games against the Angels now, the club with 2nd-best home record in baseball at 38-21, though they’re 5-5 for their last 10, including losing their last 3 vs the Dodgers.
The Angels start the series 3.0 games behind the Athletics for the lead in the American League West. This season they’ve gone 14-12 against AL East teams.
Against sub-.500 teams like the Red Sox, the Angels have been a dominant 39-12, the best such mark in all of baseball.
Boston’s road record, meanwhile, is 23-33, the 4th lowest mark in the American League. The Red Sox are 3-7 for their last 10.
For all-time the Red Sox have edged the Angels 330-289 during the regular season for a .533 win percentage, though the matchup isn’t as good in California and stands.
For the past 10 seasons (starting in 2005) the series has been fairly evenly matched, with a 2-game advantage for Boston overall (38-36) but a 2-game advantage for the Angels when playing in Anaheim (15-17).
Head-to-head
Game 1 matches Red Sox rookie Allen Webster (1-1, 6.75 ERA) vs veteran Jered Weaver (12-6, 3.59 ERA). Against Weaver, Red Sox Mike Napoli is a solid 9-for-27 (.333) with 2 home runs lifetime. Yoenis Céspedes is 3-for-10 (.300) lifetime. David Ortiz is is 11-for-37 (.297) with 3 home runs over his career. Weaver leads his club with most home runs allowed this season (18).
Game 2 features Clay Buchholz (5-7, 6.20 ERA) vs Garrett Richards (12-4, 2.58 ERA). By far, no Angels pitcher has struck out as many batters as Richards. He’s at 152 for the season, 7th-most among American League starters this season. 9:05 ET/6:05 PT.
Game 3 is set to have Rubby De La Rosa (3-4, 3.43 ERA) face off against Hector Santiago (3-7, 3.84 ERA). 3:35 ET/12:35 PT.
After these 3 games in Anaheim the Angels will come to Boston for 4 games at Fenway, August 18-21.