Los Angeles Angels vs. Baltimore Orioles

Starting a ten-game home stand, the Los Angeles Angels will hope to put some distance between themselves and their rivals who just beat them two out of three games, the Texas Rangers, and now trail the first-place Angels by just a half game.

Los Angeles (42-34) will have a sweet start to the home stand when they face the Baltimore Orioles (35-43), whom they have dominated in Anaheim. The potential sweet taste will be welcome after the bittersweet road trip that just finished.

The Angels won their first four games on the trip, sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks and taking the first game in Arlington, which put 2 ½ games between them and the Rangers, but Texas showed they would not bow down to the team that has dominated the division for the better part of a decade and came back to win the last two games.

Los Angeles rallied from a six-run hole on Wednesday’s series finale, tying the game in the top of the ninth, but the Rangers shrugged it off and won 9-7 via a Hank Blalock two-run shot for a walk-off win for Texas.

The Angels will try to shrug off that game as they face a team they have beaten 14 of the last 19 games in Angel Stadium.

John Lackey (2-3, 5.06) will attempt to keep the good times going against the Birds at home, but has to find a way to win there. Lackey is just 0-2 with a 5.28 ERA in two starts at home in his injury abbreviated season.

On the road in his last start, Lackey was masterful as he did not allow an earned run on five hits and fanned nine in a 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Jeremy Guthrie (6-7, 5.11) will oppose Lackey in the series opener on Thursday. Guthrie has had an up-and-down season and he is currently on an up-swing, looking to win his third straight start after allowing three runs on five hits over five innings of a 6-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

Baltimore had an interesting few games when they turned a 10-1 deficit into an 11-10 win by scoring 10 runs over the seventh and eight innings against the Boston Red Sox, but saw the roles reversed when they allowed Boston to score four times in the ninth to lose for just the second time in 31 games in which they led after eight innings.

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