Prior to last Saturday night's mystifying defeat against the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright was surfing on cloud nine, holding an American League-best 2.01 ERA despite his sub-$500,000 contract.
Steven Wright looks to rebound against Angels
While he still stakes the claim to the lowest ERA in the AL at 2.18, his rocket ship came back to earth against the Rangers, as he was battered for eight runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks in his second-shortest outing of 2016, lasting just 4.2 innings.
Wright's struggles on Saturday simply underlined the porous performance of late of the downtrodden Red Sox pitching staff. In a disappointing 2-4 road trip which placed Boston a season-worst 5.5 games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles in the AL East, Red Sox starters allowed 32 earned runs in 49.1 innings of work, the one saving grace being Rick Porcello's one-run outing in a win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.
Looking to return to his winning ways on Friday night at Fenway Park, the 8-5 Wright could not pick a better opponent to face than the scuffling Los Angeles Angels. Sitting in the cellar of the AL West at 32-47, the Angels are coming off of their second three-game sweep at the hands of the Houston Astros in as many weeks while having lost nine of their last ten.
The team is struggling mightily at the plate, having scored more than four runs just twice since June 8 and carrying the 11th-best OPS in the AL (.721), which pales in comparison to Boston's league-leading .820 mark. 2014 AL MVP Mike Trout enjoyed a stellar month at the plate, hitting .333 with five home runs and 13 RBI to accompany a 1.002 OPS, however, the rest of the lineup has not been able to support the .323-hitter as of late.
Should Wright's knuckleball operate against the Angels and allow him to last at least 7.1 innings, it will be the fourth time in five starts that the Los Angeles County native will have stayed in the ballgame for that duration, granting the bullpen a much needed break after a busy six games against the Rangers and Rays.
Jhoulys Chacin attempts to forget regrettable month of June
On the other side of the mound, Angels starter Jhoulys Chacin has failed to enjoy similar success to Wright, faring just 3-6 with a harrowing 5.64 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP in 14 starts thus far in 2016. Chacin has allowed at least four earned runs in each of his last four outings, going 1-3 with an 8.59 ERA in June while allowing 21 earned runs in 22 innings.
In his last performance, Chacin endured a 7-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics, letting up four runs on six hits and four walks in 4.2 strenuous innings of work. The Venezuelan has not lasted more than five innings in a game since a complete game victory over the Detroit Tigers on May 30.
While the Red Sox offense succumbed to a rough patch in Boston's 10-16 month of June, the team still leads the MLB in runs, hits, total bases, average, on-base percentage, and OPS. However, the squad has failed to record a single run in the first inning since June 11, playing from behind far too often as of late.
Look for shortstop Xander Bogaerts and designated hitter David Ortiz, two of the AL's top three in batting average, to emerge for strong performances against the right-handed Chacin.