After avoiding a six-game Freeway Series sweep with a historic 13-5 victory over the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers on Sunday, the Los Angeles Angels return home down the 5 Freeway to Anaheim to open a three-game series with the Houston Astros on Monday night.
Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (2-2, 9.50 ERA) will make his fifth start of the season after missing almost two years with assorted injuries. He will be opposed by Houston righty Spencer Arrighetti (7-1, 1.94).
Arrighetti, who is 0-0 with a 2.19 ERA in two career starts against the Angels, was the American League Pitcher of the Month for May after allowing just three earned runs in five starts and taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 2-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on May 15.
The Astros have won his last four starts, including a 11-9 home win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday when he allowed a season-high four runs on six hits over four innings — most notably a grand slam by Henry Davis — while striking out three. It marked just the second time in nine starts this season that Arrighetti allowed more than one earned run.
“He’s been picking us up; we picked him up today, and that’s what good teams do,” Houston manager Joe Espada said.
Arrighetti will be facing a Los Angeles team that pounded out 15 hits in Sunday’s win over the Dodgers. The bottom four batters in the lineup — Jo Adell, Nick Madrigal, Jose Siri and Sebastian Rivero — combined to go 13-for-15 with four walks, 10 runs scored and 10 RBIs.
That quartet, who began the game 11-for-11, also made history. It marked the first time in the expansion era that the bottom four spots began a game 10-for-10, and the .867 average was the highest by batters 6-9 since at least 1900, according to Elias Sports.
Rivero led the way, going 5-for-5 with a double and six RBIs, increasing his batting average from .133 to .220 in the process. Adell went 4-for-5 with a two-run homer and scored four runs while Siri finished 3-for-3 with a walk, two RBIs and two runs scored.
Rivero had eight RBIs in 67 major league games before Sunday.
“It was pretty special to watch,” Adell said. “Rivero just had an absolute day. Or really even two weeks, with how well it was.”
Houston took two of three games over the weekend at home over the Athletics but come in off a 5-0 loss on Sunday.
Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez has vaulted himself near the top of the American League MVP race, batting .316 with a league-high 22 home runs and 48 RBIs. He has been red-hot so far in June, hitting .476 with two homers and nine RBIs in six games.
Rodriguez is 0-1 with a 7.36 ERA in two career starts against Houston. He comes in off the worst start of his comeback season, allowing seven earned runs, including home runs by Hunter Goodman and a 433-foot three-run blast by Willi Castro, on seven hits in just 3 2/3 innings in an 8-2 home loss to Colorado on Tuesday.
“I just left pitches over the middle,” Rodriguez said. “Being out of the zone isn’t going to set you up for success, and when you leave it right over the middle on a tee, they’re going to do a lot of damage.”
Rodriguez originally was credited with allowing three home runs in the contest, but official scorers later changed TJ Rumfield’s drive, which bounced over the right field wall off the top of Adell’s head, to a rare four-base error.
–Field Level Media
