The Los Angeles Angels will try to continue their dominance over the Detroit Tigers at Angel Stadium on Saturday as they meet for the third installment of a four-game series.
The Angels have won 12 of their last 13 games versus Detroit in Anaheim as they downed the Tigers, 2-0, on Friday. Albert Pujols scored both of Los Angeles' runs as he homered and reached home after a single in the fourth inning. The Angels managed to win without shortstop Erick Aybar, who was out of the lineup due to a left hamstring injury.
Pujols has gone 4-for-6 with two home runs and four runs scored so far in the series. The 35-year old slugger is hitting .395 with 10 homers in 35 career meetings against the Tigers. Mike Trout has struggled versus the Tigers in recent history, going 4-for-30 over his past eight games.
Starter Hector Santiago struck out seven batters and allowed just three hits and three walks over 7 1/3 solid innings. Anibal Sanchez gave up two runs on six hits and two walks with nine strikeouts over seven frames for the Tigers, who have dropped five of their last seven games.
The Angels would not be above the .500 mark were it not for closer Huston Street, who registered his 15th save of the campaign on Friday.
"Huston getting four outs is huge," manager Mike Scioscia said. "And it wouldn't have been possible unless Hector got us to a certain point in the game, and he did."
Los Angeles will look to keep the ball rolling as Jered Weaver takes the hill on Saturday. Weaver has submitted four consecutive strong starts. The 6-foot-7 righty has allowed only 10 earned runs in 35 innings during the month of May and enters Saturday on a three-game winning streak.
Detroit will counter with Shane Greene, who took a shutout into the sixth inning of his last start before ending up allowing four runs on eight hits. Greene is 4-3 with a 4.27 ERA heading into his first career bout with the Angels. Greene had allowed only three runs over a span of 24 2/3 innings before his late game struggles at Oakland on Monday.
It won't matter who Tigers manager Brad Ausmus sends to the mound if his offense doesn't figure out a way to be more productive. Detroit has had only two run-scoring hits over its past five games and has scored only one run in 13 innings against lefty starters the past two games.
"We've gotta find a way to score runs," Ausmus said. "We're not getting hits. You can't sit on your hands when you're not getting and hits think, 'Oh, well, something's going to happen now.' You've gotta try something."
The Angels went 4-3 against the Tigers last season and the two clubs will meet again at Comerica Park from August 25-27.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.