The wily Jordan Lyles takes on Chase Silseth, a 2021 draftee with a tongue-twister name.
Pop quiz: which of these two teams is bad for baseball, the over-spending-slash-underperforming Angels or the Orioles, steadily climbing their way out of the AL basement?
I’m curious, which of these teams are bad for baseball?
I can’t decide if it’s the team wasting the primes of two of the best players of this generation, the team who spent half a billion on two players, or the team with the best farm system in baseball? Thoughts, @Buster_ESPN? pic.twitter.com/38Mdav9UuP
— Tyler Grote (@tyler_grote) July 7, 2022
Sorry. The Orioles have been bad often enough in my lifetime that I try not to gloat at other team’s misfortunes. But it is a little comforting that the team with the $110 million payroll is coming into this series with a worse record than the $23 million one. Shohei continues to shock and awe, and Mike Trout is still an AL All-Star, but the rest of the team underperforms, and the team is dragging in a 38-45 record (one game worse than the O’s).
Anyway, enough of that. Tonight, the Angels send rookie right-hander Chase Silseth (1-2, 5.23 ERA) to the mound, a guy whom, as Paul pointed out in his series preview, is the first member of the 2021 MLB draft class to make the majors, after only 10 minor league games. That’s pretty cool; he must have been pretty seasoned. In his MLB debut on May 13, Silseth threw six shutout innings but in four appearances since then he’s given up two or more runs and gone 4.1 innings or less. Silseth throws five pitches: his mix is 41% fastball, 28% split-finger, 21% slider, 7% sinker, and 4% curveball.
Against Youth is Experience. In his twelfth MLB season, Jordan Lyles is 4-7 with a 4.70 ERA, about ½ a run less than his former career average. He’s also coming off one of the best starts of his O’s career, 6.1 innings of one-run baseball against the Twins in which he also struck out seven. Last year, with the division rival Rangers, Lyles got hit up pretty badly by the Angels: he went 0-3 with a .375 BA against and 1.094 OPS. On the current team, Brandon Marsh is 1-for-2 against Lyles, Shohei Ohtani 2-for-8, Kurt Suzuki 4-for-9, and Mike Trout a punishing 8-for-18. (Old friend Jonathan Villar is a new Angel, by the way, after LAA lost Anthony Rendon for the season and the Cubs DFA’d Villar.)
Here’s hoping Lyles has his good stuff tonight!
Orioles lineup
1. Cedric Mullins CF
2. Trey Mancini DH
3. Anthony Santander RF
4. Ryan Mountcastle 1B
5. Austin Hays LF
6. Adley Rutschman C
7. Rougned Odor 2B
8. Jonathan Araúz 3B
9. Jorge Mateo SS
Angels lineup
1. Jonathan Villar 3B
2. Mike Trout CF
3. Shohei Ohtani DH
4. Taylor Ward RF
5. Jared Walsh 1B
6. Luis Rengifo SS
7. Michael Stefanic 2B
8. Brandon Marsh LF
9. Kurt Suzuki C