Texas @ Los Angeles preview
Angel Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jul 31, 2010 ) Texas 2, LA Angels 1
Cliff Lee looks for his 100th career victory on Sunday afternoon when the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels meet in the finale of a three-game series in Anaheim.
The Rangers’ left-hander will be opposed by Jered Weaver in a matchup of All-Star hurlers.
Lee enters the contest with a 99-56 career mark, including a 9-4 record in 2010.
The 31-year-old Lee leads the American League with a 2.40 earned-run average and has an unworldly strikeout-to-walk ratio of 114 to seven. Lee has allowed more homers (nine) than walks.
Lee is making his fifth start for Texas since the Rangers acquired him in a blockbuster deal with the Seattle Mariners. He is 1-1 with a 2.55 ERA in 35 1/3 innings for Texas.
Lee’s only victory since joining Texas came against the Angels on July 22, when he held Los Angeles to two runs and five hits in 8 1/3 innings.
His last start was fabulous even though he wasn’t involved in the decision. Lee struck out a career-best 13 and allowed just one unearned run and five hits in nine innings against Oakland in a game the Rangers won in 10 innings.
Lee is 7-3 with a 3.07 ERA in 10 career starts against the Angels.
Going up against Lee provides quite a challenge for Weaver, the ace of the Angels’ pitching staff.
Weaver (9-7, 3.19 ERA) is just 1-4 over his last five starts, with Los Angeles scoring a total of seven runs in the four defeats.
The right-hander lost to the Boston Red Sox in his last outing despite giving up just two runs and six hits in seven innings.
In a loss to the Rangers earlier this season, Weaver gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings. He is 1-1 with a 5.09 ERA in three starts against Texas this season.
Overall, Weaver is 5-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 17 career starts against Texas.
Former teammate Vladimir Guerrero homered against Weaver earlier this season and continued to haunt his old team on Saturday night.
Guerrero hit a two-run homer off Dan Haren to account for all the Texas scoring in a 2-1 victory.
Guerrero has five homers against the Angels this season in just 43 at-bats. He’s hitting .326 with 13 RBIs against his former club.
Saturday’s homer was Guerrero’s first since July 9. He has 21 homers and 84 RBIs.