jack kochanowicz gets the ball for the Angels on Saturday night against the Dodgers, who have already gone 4-0 in the matchup this season. The assignment comes after Friday’s 1-0 loss, when Freddie Freeman ended the opener with a walk-off home run in the ninth.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and 0.93
Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts for Los Angeles with a 0.93 ERA across his last three outings, and he has allowed two runs over 19.1 innings in that stretch. He enters with a 2.86 ERA, 69 strikeouts and 15 walks over 69.1 innings, so the Angels are facing a starter who has been missing bats and limiting damage at the same time.
Kochanowicz and mid-May
Kochanowicz carries a 5.23 ERA across 12 starts, with 46 strikeouts and 35 walks over 63.2 innings. His last meeting with the Dodgers came in mid-May, when he gave up six runs on seven hits over six innings in a 6-0 Angels loss, and Andy Pages, Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández each homered in that game.
Saturday night puts the Angels back in the same spot: Kochanowicz against a division rival that has already taken the first four games of the season series. Teoscar Hernández is on the injured list, but the Dodgers still have enough power in the lineup to pressure a pitcher whose command has been uneven all year. If the Angels are going to avoid a 5-0 season record against them, Kochanowicz has to turn that mid-May script around fast.
