Reds at Angels, Game 1 - Preview and Lineups

The Reds travel to Los Angeles to take on the Anaheim Angels of Mike Trout tonight, which is pretty cool. We as National League fans, Reds fans, and generally people who live in the Eastern Time Zone aren’t subjected to the greatness of Mike Trout nearly often enough, so this is a neat twist in the schedule.

Trout has been phenomenal as ever this season, batting .307/.466/.642 on the season with a 194 OPS+, 22 HR, 18 2B, and 62 runs scored. He’s walked 68 times in 337 plate appearances. That OBP and walk total leads all of MLB, while runs, slugging, OPS, and OPS+ are merely only tops in the American League.

In any season that Trout has received at least 500 plate apperances, he’s never finished lower than fourth in MVP balloting, winning twice and coming in at runner up four times. And there’s a pretty good argument that he could’ve won all of them.

He’s incredible, folks. Enjoy these two games this week.

On the mound for the Angels is 28-year-old left hander Andrew Heaney. Heaney has started five games for the Angels this season (25.1 IP), good for a 5.68 ERA. He got pretty well shellacked by the Blue Jays in his last outing, giving up five runs over 3.2 innings. In his first three starts of the season, Andrew posted strikeout totals of 8, 10, and 10 (TEX once, SEA twice). He’s struck out only two batters in each of the last two games, while walking seven total.

It’ll be interesting to see which Andrew Heaney shows up to face the Reds tonight.

For the Reds, Orange County’s native son Tyler Mahle will take the hill. It’s obviously his first time pitching in Angel Stadium as a Red, but he grew up there and his brother Greg actually spent time with the Angels back in 2016 and is kicking around in their minor league system. Mahle’s last start was brilliant, pitching seven innings against Houston allowing only two runs and one walk to go with seven strikeouts.

Hopefully that’ll carry over to his hometown.

First pitch is scheduled for 10:07 PM EDT. Being in an American League park, the Reds will be able to use the DH and, just look who it is...

Reds lineup

Angels lineup

But for real though..