The Los Angeles Angels open a 10-game road trip Monday afternoon with a makeup game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
The game was originally rained out on April 15.
The Angels will continue east afterward and begin a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
The Royals (25-54) have lost 11 of 12 and 17 of 19.
The Angels (41-37) have lost two straight and trail the Seattle Mariners by six games for the second wild card from the American League.
Los Angeles left-hander Tyler Skaggs is scheduled to start on the mound after he was scratched Thursday against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays because of a sore hamstring.
Skaggs (6-4
Adidas Mika Zibanejad Jersey , 2.81 ERA) should have good memories of Kansas City. He threw seven shutout innings in each of his two career appearances against the Royals, both on their home field.
He allowed four hits and matched his career high with nine strikeouts on April 16, 2017, but was matched by Royals starter Ian Kennedy and Kansas City eventually scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to win 1-0.
Skaggs made his first career start in Kansas City in July 2016, which also marked his first major-league game back from Tommy John surgery performed nearly two years earlier. He allowed three hits in the 13-0 win.
The Angels are 6-0 against the Royals this season, but Skaggs has not appeared in any of those games. He last pitched July 15 at the Oakland A’s and did not allow an earned run in seven innings of an 8-4 win.
Skaggs is 3-0 in June with a 0.45 ERA, perhaps his best stretch since undergoing elbow surgery in August 2014.
“With Tyler, we’ve seen a constant growth in confidence,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia told the Los Angeles Times. “This guy’s worked so hard to get back to where he was and even a little above that now.”
Kansas City starter Jakob Junis (5-8, 4.43) has been trending in the opposite direction, losing his past five starts.
He began the season by blanking the Detroit Tigers for seven innings in a 1-0 win on April 3 and doing the same six days later in a 1-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Junis then faced the Angels and was knocked out after allowing four runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings of a 5-3 loss in Kansas City, giving up home runs to Luis Valbuena, Justin Upton and Mike Trout.
Junis had allowed 19 home runs entering Sunday, tied for the major-league lead with Bartolo Colon.
“It’s definitely been a struggle for me,” he told reporters after his latest start. “I’ve given up a lot of home runs this year, so I’m very conscious of that. I’m trying to keep it in the ballpark, because when I do, that’s when I have success.”
Junis struggled even worse in his only other appearance against the Angels last June
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The New York Yankees have the best record in baseball at 50-22, and they’ve rarely been better than against the Tampa Bay Rays this season.
The Yankees won their first five meetings with the Rays this season by a combined margin of 31-10 before losing Sunday, and they’re back again for a weekend series at Tropicana Field, having won seven of eight overall after a sweep of the Mariners.
New York has been dominant for many reasons, but a strong bullpen is certainly one of them, with a collective ERA of 2.86, second only to Houston among American League teams. Part of that has been solid starting pitching requiring less use of relievers. The Yankees’ relievers have thrown close to 70 innings fewer than the Rays have in grinding out a 3.73 ERA in a league-high workload.
“They’ve been terrific,” manager Aaron Boone said of New York’s relievers. “They protect each other, because many guys have stepped up. … It’s a big reason. We’re built in a lot of ways around that great bullpen. They continue to deliver.”
The Rays (34-40) have lost five of seven and have sorely missed that continuity in their starting rotation, continuing to rely on relievers working as “openers” on patchwork bullpen days. Such will be the case in Friday’s opener, with right-hander Ryne Stanek (1-1, 2.21 ERA) getting the ball first, but expected to go little more than the first inning.
Stanek has pitched exceptionally well in that role, however. In eight June appearances, he has an 0.00 ERA in 10 2/3 innings, having allowed only three hits with 12 strikeouts against three walks. Until their recent skid, the Rays had continued to hover around .500 baseball despite trading away major parts of last year’s team in exchange for prospects.
Stanek started last Saturday’s game against the Yankees
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The Rays got one key player back after missing two months with injury in center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, whose defense is among the league’s best. His bat has yet to come around this season, though. He is 0-for-9 in two games since returning from the disabled list, lowering his season average to .135.
“He’s fine. He’ll get going,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Unfortunately, KK got off to a rough start. Those numbers are going to be ugly for a little while, but I’m confident he’ll get going … I’m very confident.”
The Rays will face a familiar face Friday in Yankees starter C.C. Sabathia, who is 4-2 this season with a 3.30 ERA, with one of those two losses coming Sunday against the Rays in New York. Sabathia pitched into the eighth but gave up a season-high 10 hits, allowing three runs in a 3-1 loss while striking out a season-high 10 batters and walking only one.
Sabathia has faced the Rays 46 times in his career, and no opponent has more wins against him than the Rays — he’s 16-15 all-time, with a 3.76 ERA.
New York goes into the series with a considerable head of steam. They’re 17-4 in their last 21 games, putting them on pace to challenge the best starts by any team at this stage in the season.
