Game 1: Ohtani And Lorenzen Will Dominate

Angels vs. Tigers, 1:10 ET GAME 1

There is an end in sight for all of this nonsense about what will happen with Shohei Ohtani. The Angels have at least stated they are not going to trade away Ohtani at the deadline. Instead, they are already talking about trading for players in hopes of making a push for a Wild Card spot. Today the Angels take on another team with trade rumors swirling around them, the Tigers.

One of the reasons this entire Ohtani thing has come to an end is the recent play from the Angels. Even without Mike Trout in the lineup, they have been able to win four of their past five games and seven of their past ten. That includes Tuesday's game where they were able to take down the Tigers in extra innings. It was a pretty exciting game, but more importantly, they walked away with the win. Now they have a doubleheader against the Tigers today. This game, the first of the two, has Ohtani on the hill for the Angels. There have been some injury issues for Ohtani that have hindered his pitching a little bit recently. He hasn't had to miss a start or anything, but July really hasn't been a good month. He has allowed 14 earned runs over 16.1 innings. In all three of the starts, he has allowed five runs, which is not good. He has also allowed six home runs this month - four of them in the Pirates game alone.

The Tigers host the Angels in a doubleheader on Thursday. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images)

On the other side, the Tigers are technically still in the division race. Detroit has done a decent enough job since their horrendous start to claw back toward relevancy, but obviously, they aren't quite there yet. Now the rumors around them are that they are going to try and trade away one or two of their starters. The only way they could go into the playoffs would be through the division and right now they are 6.5 games back. The way that division has gone all season, it still is very much up for grabs. But, if the Tigers do decide to sell, then it will be extremely difficult for them to make a run. Michael Lorenzen is one of the guys that might be traded away, but he is scheduled to start today. He has a very nice 3.49 ERA. Ohtani has had a bad July, Lorenzen has been the exact opposite - he has gone 18.2 innings and allowed just eight hits and no earned runs. The Tigers have won all three of his starts and even the bullpen hasn't allowed a run in his starts this month.

As much as players say they aren't distracted by trade talks, I do think that some of it impacts them negatively. Ohtani might be comforted now that the trade talk is behind him (or at least that's what the Angels are saying now). I'm going to play the under 8.5 in this game. Lorenzen has pitched too well recently so it should be low-scoring but I think the Angels probably win the game.

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