Red Sox at Angels lineups: Trains passing in the night, and the standings

The Red Sox, winners of 4 straight games, kick off a 4-game series against the cratering Angels, losers of 10 straight, behind Michael Wacha tonight in Orange County (9:38 p.m., NESN, MLBN out-of-market).

I’m not sure if I love the idea of facing a team that’s lost 10 straight, imho. Anywhere from two to like seven is great. Once you hit double digits, you’re probably going to run into one here or there, and that’s if you DON’T have two of the best players most of us have ever seen. Which they do. Mike Trout isn’t playing like Mike Trout, sure, but... I don’t trust it.

I feel better about it on average, though, because better they stink than be good! Michael Wacha continues to outpitch his peripheral stats, but the underlying numbers are still good, and his real-life 2.43 ERA is good no matter how you slice it. He’ll go against Noah Syndergaard, the one-time flamethrower who averages a pedestrian 6.0 K/9, right along the lines of that of pitchers like... crafty veteran Michael Wacha (5.8 K/9). He’s much better on Twitter, though.

The Angels feature the guys you know and the guys struggling to be known, including onetime prized prospect Jo Adell, who’s up from the minors, and shortstop Andrew Velazquez, who’s apparently nicknamed “The Squid.”

Before the game, Jackie Bradley Jr. was reinstated from the Paternity Leave list and Jarren Duran was sent back to Worcester. Christian Arroyo bats leadoff and plays right field as Enrique Hernández gets the day off.