The two teams expecting to return to the mark of .500 before the All-Star break will close on Friday night when Arizona Diamondback opened three-market chains in California with Los Angeles Angels.
Arizona, at 46–48, is five games behind San Francisco giants for the final wild-card spot in the National League after dividing the four-game series in San Diego.
Los Angeles (45–48) The Four Games are behind Boston Red Sox for the final American League Wild Card after dividing the four-game series with Texas.
This is not a place where similarities end.
Both Diamondback and Angels are 4-6 in their last 10 matches and will use the pitcher going to Oregon University after playing their prep baseball in the Las Vegas region on Friday.
Right-handed Rhine Nelson (5–2, 3.39 ERA), who led Basic High School in nearby Henderson, Nev, Eugene, Ore in 2016. For a state title before leaving for, we will start the series opener for Arizona. He would oppose veteran left-handed Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.19), who starred on a 10-minute drive to the west of the famous Las Vegas strip at Spring Valley High School.
The Nelson is 1–0 with 1.23 ERA at the beginning of a career against Angels (July 2023) and comes in a 7–1 domestic victory over the Cannes City Royals on Saturday. He performed an ideal game in the sixth innings before hitting Catcher Freddy Fermine from an out, line-drive single to center.
Nelson left after scoring one run on four hits in seven innings. He hit five and did not run a batsman for the second straight game, throwing 86 pitches, for 63 strikes.
Arizona’s manager Tori Lovulo admitted that he would later have to make a difficult decision if Nelson’s perfect-game dialect was still intact in the game.
“It was in my mind. I was nervous,” Lavulo said about Nelson’s pitch count. “I was sweating. You know what I was going to do and I don’t want to say it out loud, but I think what I want to do. … If he was on 90 pitches or less (entering the ninth), he might have ended the game.”
As it was, Nelson’s seven-inning start was the longest in his season. The 27 -year -old has 1.53 ERA with 26 strikes and has six walks in 29 1/3 innings in his last five matches, all of which resulted in Erizona win.
The 35-year-old Anderson is 6-4 with 4.27 ERA in 19 Career Showwee (17 beginning) against Arizona. He started 14 directly this season without a win on 18 April, when host angels evacuated the veterans 2–0.
Despite the long -winning drought, Anderson picked well in his last three beginnings – against Boston, Atlanta and Toronto – 14 2/3 innings (2.30 ERA) allowed a total of four runs on 14 hits, while 14 and six walks. He played six shutout innings and allowed only four hits in his team’s 4–0 win in Atlanta on 1 July, but went on a 0–0 equal with the game.
Angels enters the series after domestic loss of 11–4 on Thursday as Starter Jack Kochanoviz (3-9) continued to struggle, leading to eight runs on eight hits in 2/3 innings. Kochanoviz has done 6.03 ERA in the beginning 19, the highest in the American League Pichers who have thrown at least 90 innings.
“Just bad,” Kochanoviz said about his performance. “I did not make adjustments that are necessary to make me (make). It’s disappointing, obviously. I just have to throw the ball better.”
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