Two teams in a battle to avoid finishing in the Cellar square of the American League West Friday evening when the last athletics place will open a series of three games with the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, California.
The angels of fourth place (66-74), which have 22 games to play, hold an advance of 2 1/2 on the A (64-77) in the classification.
Los Angeles also has an advance of 8-2 in the series, including a scan of three games of athletics in Anaheim on June 9-11.
Mason Barnett (0-1, 11.25 ERA), classified prospect No. 10 from A by MLB Pipeline, will make its second beginning of career and first on the road on Friday.
He will be opposed by his right-handed colleague Jose Soriano (10-9, 3.68), who won consecutive departures and three of his last four.
The Barnett, 24 years old, the 87th choice in total of the MLB 2022 recovery in Auburn by Kansas City, was acquired by A of the deadline for trade in 2024 as part of an agreement which sent the Lucas Erceg lift to the Royals.
Barnett was called from Triple-A Las Vegas with which he was 6-2 with an MPM of 6.13 in 25 appearances (23 departures). He made his debut in the major league last Saturday against the Texas Rangers visiting and granted five points in eight strokes in four rounds and more in a defeat of 9-3. He removed one and did not work a dough.
“He attacked the striking area,” said the director of A Mark Kotsay. “He was beaten with land in the middle of the plate and earlier. At first, it seemed that the quick ball had a certain life. He received popups.”
Barnett, whose quick ball reached 97 MPH, started the match with a first round of 1-2-3 but granted three points in the second on a simple RBI of Kyle Higashioka and a double of two points by Michael Helman. He granted a double RBI to Josh Jung in the third, and left after giving a head circuit to Wyatt Langford to open the fifth.
“I think they picked up the point of liberation and remained quite well on the rupture ball,” said Kotsay. “He tried to mix the match plan to enter a little, and Langford ended up lighting this ball for his latest striker. Overall, it is encouraging that he is beating the typing area. We just have to work to perhaps make him a deception or simply execute his land.”
Soriano, who is 1-2 with an MPM of 7.09 in seven career appearances and five starts against athletics, did not allow to run in each of his two past departures, a 4-0 victory in Texas followed by a 3-0 victory in Houston. He only granted five strokes in 12 2/3 innings during this period with 14 stick withdrawals and four balls on bullets.
Soriano was particularly impressive during his last departure in Houston, giving only a simple first round to Yordan Alvarez and three balls in seven rounds while removing eight.
“Really, really good,” said Angels acting director Ray Montgomery. “The first two rounds, he had a few deep accounts, he had some 3-0 counts on a few guys. It was a bit out of his character there. But he gathered and returned to all these counts and really composed it after that. It was good.”
The Angels finished a 10 game road trip with a 5-5 brand after losing, 4-3, in Kansas City on Thursday evening. Bobby Witt Jr. hit a solo circuit with two outings at the bottom of the eighth round for the Royals.
-field level
