Chicago White Sox at Los Angeles Angels
Posted on | April 29, 2006 | No Comments
Last night’s game between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels was pretty exciting. The White Sox came away the victor with an 8-5 win. The White Sox continue to get solid innings out of their starters. Tonight looks to be more of the same when Jose Contreras takes the mound for the White Sox. The Angels, looking to even up the series, are sending Kelvim Escobar in response. The White Sox are the favorite at -125 and the Angels are at +115. So the easy call is to bet on the White Sox right? Not so fast. I like the Angels in this one and here’s why.
Sure, Jose Contreras is having a great year so far, but look at who he has faced—Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Minnesota. You can wipe KC and Minnesota off the map. What about Detroit and Cleveland? Well, aside from a few breakout games, they are not really high scoring teams. If we look back to last season, Contreras faced the Angels two times and gave up 3.5 runs per game. So, if we assume he will give up 3-4 runs tonight, what about Escobar?
Escobar faced the White Sox in their Championship year just once. He only went three innings, but he had 3 strikeouts and gave up no hits or runs. He is pitching fairly well this year, but there’s limited data for this match up. The two pitchers have had one common opponent this year—the Twins. When Escobar faced the Twins, he gave up 2 runs in 6 and 2/3rds innings pitched. Basically, the same type of performance Contreras put forth, except Contreras went an extra 1 and 1/3rd of an inning.
This game looks to be a fairly even match up. Keep this in mind. Last year the Angels played 25 series at home and they were only swept once. Contreras pitched once at Anaheim and the Angels won that game 3-2.
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