SteemSports Presenter: Nolan Jacobson, 
, STEEM Witness & PeerPlays Witness.
Game Information
Tuesday, June 12th
7:10 PM Pacific Time
9:10 PM Central Time
10:10 PM Eastern Time
Angel Stadium
Pitcher Showdown
Pitching for the New York Yankees will be the veteran, C.C. Sabathia! Sabathia, the first round, twentieth pick in the 1998 draft has been playing in the MLB since 2001! That is a helluva long time, in fact, that's almost 17 MLB seasons! From 2001-2008, Sabathia played for the Cleveland Indians, in his rookie season, he finished right behind Ichiro Suzuki for rookie of the year. With his time on the Indians, he was elected to play in four all-star games, and when he departed from Cleveland, he was ranked a whopping fifth all time in strikeouts for the Indians team at 1,265!
After his time with the Indians, he was traded to the Brewers in exchange for Brantley, LaPorta, and Jackson. In Milwaukee, he ended up going 11-2 with a 2.70 ERA and finished second in the league in strikeouts thrown, right behind the former ace, Tim Lincecum, with 251 K's! That year, he finished 6th in the league in the MVP voting race.
In 2008, Sabathia became a free agent, and he decided to sign a seven year, $161 million dollar contract with the New York Yankees! Believe it or not, that was the largest MLB contract ever signed until 2013. What has Sabathia accomplished with the Yankees? A LOT! In his first season with the Yankees, he won the ALCS MVP and he also brought the Yankees to the championship, later, winning it! He's made three all star appearances, unfortunately, he has had two injury plagued seasons, but now, he is having one of the best starts to his career, once again! Sabathia is currently on a 5 game, yes 5 GAME, winning streak! He hopes to continue this winning streak tonight against a once hot, Angels team!
Taking the mound for Los Angeles will be the man who has been on both sides of the United States, that is J.C. Ramirez! Ramirez, the undrafted player played his first MLB game for the Phillies, on the east coast. During that season, he pitching in 18 games as a relief pitcher and managed to throw 16 K's and get 3 holds on the year. After this season, he was a free agent again and signed a contract with the Diamondbacks. With the D-Backs, he pitched in 12 games and threw a total of 11 K's.
After his short year with the D-Backs, he signed with the Reds, in Cincinnati, he pitched in 27 games, he went 1-3 and he tossed 28 strikeouts. Later that year, Ramirez was claimed off the waivers by the Angels. He pitched in 43 games for the Angels, he managed to get 12 holds, 2 wins, and 31 strikeouts! But, this year is his first year as a starting pitcher. Through 14 games, he is 6-4 with 54 K's and a 4.33 ERA and he has won 4/5!
New York Yankees
This season, the Yankees have been one of the hottest teams in the MLB! And, their ability to perform at a high level was shown last night against the Angels in the first game in this three game series. Last night, the final score was 5-3, with the Yankess coming out on top, obviously, and their starting pitcher, Tanaka had a great outing, throwing 8 strikeouts through 6.2 innings while managing to only give up 1 ER. On the batting side, the rookie of the year front-runner, Aaron Judge, went 2-4 with a HR and 2 RBI's and Didi Gregorious went 4/4 with 2 RBI's.
This victory just added on to the spectacular 6 game winning streak they have running right now. Overall, in these 6 games, they have scored a total of 61 runs and they have only gave up 12 runs! They are currently atop of their AL East division, sitting at 38-23, leading Boston whose in second place by 4 games.
Can you believe this.. the Yankees are leading the league in EVERY major hitting stat and they are second in the league in EVERY major pitching stat! I mean, that is pretty friggin' impressive! The only team that has been better than the Yankees this year, record wise, is the Astros, who are in the fairly easy division out in the AL West. Overall, this Yankees team will do everything at all costs to appear in another World Series!
Los Angeles Angels
The Angels, 33-34, have been at most, a mediocre team this year, and their record stands behind that statement. The Angels struggle on both sides of the ball, but, they struggle the most at the pitching spot. Unfortunately, like most teams, they do not even have one star, or even above average pitcher, as their pitchers consist of Nolasco, Chavez, Meyer, Shoemaker, and J.C. Ramirez. This has been the downfall of the team.
Combining all of these pitchers records, they have more defeats than victories. And, even worse, all of their ERA's are over a 4.00. This offseason, the Angels will look to build on to their SP rotation, so, hopefully there are a couple decent SP's who test the free agency market this offseason.
On the batting side, they have had only 2 guys who really stand out. Those two players are the prodigy, Mike Trout, and the veteran batter who just surpassed the 600 HR all time record and he is now trailing Sammy Sosa in 8th place with 609 HR's. Trout is the only batter on the team whose batting over .300 as he is batting .337 with a total of 16 home runs. Overall, I'd expect Mike Trout to lead the way for the Angels this season, but by no means do I think this Angels team will make it to the playoffs.