The Angels have been the moneyline favorite just once so far this season, a game they won. Los Angeles has won nine, or 47.4%, of the 19 games it has played as the underdog this season.
The Angels defeated the Astros 3-0 yesterday, with Jose Soriano getting the win (6.0 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 7 K) and Mike Trout leading the way offensively (going 1 for 4 with a home run and an RBI).
Matthew Boyd gets his second start of the spring, and we should see him try to push to three innings as he readies to pitch for Team USA. The lefty looked okay the last time out, punching out four of the five batters he retired. He did allow five hits, though four of them were singles.
Last season, the Angels were on FanDuel Sports Network West, owned by Main Street Sports. The company has been in a rough financial spot for a while and recently missed some payments to teams. In response, the Angels and the eight other teams who were signed with Main Street terminated their deals last month. Six of those clubs will now have their broadcasts handled by Major League Baseball itself, though the Angels are (for now) one of the holdouts.
Anderson is back in the organization after bouncing on and off the roster in 2025. He worked out of the rotation at Triple-A Salt Lake for the majority of the season. Anderson took the ball 24 times and tossed 116 2/3 innings of 6.02 ERA ball in the Pacific Coast League. He had a below-average 16.7% strikeout rate but generally avoided walks and did a decent job keeping the ball in the park in the minors.
The 29-year-old Okamoto is coming off a season where he appeared in just 69 Central League games for NPB's Yomiuri Giants. The infielder hit .327/.416/.598 in 293 trips to the plate for Yomiuri last year. That was good for an otherworldly 210 wRC+, as he slugged 15 homers with 21 doubles while posting identical 11.3% strikeout and walk rates. That scorching hot half-season isn't reflective of Okamoto's overall body of work, but his numbers are still impressive even over a larger sample.
FRANKLIN'S VOICE: Hello, Joseph. Trouble? JOSEPH'S VOICE: Looks like we'll have to send someone down. There are a lot of people asking for help for a man named Larry Carlat. FRANKLIN'S VOICE: Larry Carlat? Yes! Tonight's his crucial night. You're right. We'll have to send someone down immediately. Whose turn is it? JOSEPH'S VOICE: That's why I came to see you, sir. It's that little restaurant manager's turn again.
Hello and welcome from the NLDS, and what a damn game it was to start the series against the Phillies. Things looked bleak early as Cristopher Sanchez was dominant early and Shohei Ohtani faltered just a bit in the 2nd inning to give the Phillies an early lead. But out of nothing, Enrique Hernandez drove in a pair of runs and Teoscar Hernandez won it with a big homer as Tyler Glasnow, , and Roki Sasaki managed to close out the final three innings in a 5-3 victory.