In the later window of today’s Sunday MLB slate, the Los Angeles Angels will take on the San Francisco Giants. The Angels have picked up a pair of wins in the opening two matchups in this series, and the Giants will be looking to avoid the sweep today. Jose Soriano and Carson Whisenhunt will be on the mound for their respective squads.

Looking at the odds, the Angels enter as narrow -114 favorites on the moneymen and hold +149 odds of covering the -1.5 run line on DraftKings Sportsbook. The Giants hold -105 odds of winning outright with the run total set at 8.5.

Angels vs. Giants prediction, preview

The Los Angeles Angels showed a spark to start the season, but have slipped to 41-64 on the year. This marks the worst record in the MLB. The Halos are looking to snap a three-game losing streak and have gone 3-5 since returning from the All-Star break. On the season, the Angels have gone 53-52 to the run line, and the game total is 48-56-1 to the over/under.

Jose Soriano will be on the mound for the Angels, marking his 22nd start of the season. The 27-year-old enters with a 3.43 ERA, a 1.254 WHIP, an 8-6 record, 12 home runs allowed, and 122 strikeouts tallied across 118.0 innings pitched. Soriano has struggled a bit of late, posting a 5.23 ERA across his past six starts after holding opponents to zero earned runs in five of his first six starts this year. Rafael Devers and Luis Arraez are the only two players to have faced Soriano before in this Giants’ lineup.

Looking at the offensive production, the Angels rank 17th in hits, 18th in runs, 21st in home runs, and have the second-most strikeouts in the MLB. Jo Adell leads the team with 97 hits, along with 15 home runs and 57 RBI. Zach Neto adds 95 hits of his own, along with a team-high 19 home runs and 46 RBI. Mike Trout adds 18 home runs and 40 RBI, while Jorge Soler is the lone other player with more than 10 home runs. Oswald Peraza, Vaughn Grissom, Nolan Schanuel, and Logan O’Hoppe also play notable roles.

The San Francisco Giants enter today’s matchup with a 44-60 record on the season, which slots them in fourth place in the National League West. They are coming off back-to-back victories over this Angels team, which snapped a five-game losing streak before this. On the season, San Francisco has gone 50-54 to the run line, and the game total is 48-46-10 to the over/under.

Carson Whisenhunt will take the ball for the Giants today. This will make just his third start of the season and the eighth of his MLB career. Across his 10.2 innings pitched this season, Whisenhunt is posting a 3.38 ERA, a 1.406 WHIP, one home run allowed, and six strikeouts tallied. He has faced the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies this season, and no member of the Angels have ever faced him.

Looking at the production at the plate for the Giants, they rank sixth in hits, 24th in runs, 18th in home runs, and 26th in strikeouts. Luis Arraez leads the team with 127 hits and only 19 strikeouts on the year. Jung Hoo Lee and Casey Schmitt have also eclipsed 100 hits, with Schmitt adding 21 home runs. Rafael Devers leads the team with 22 home runs, an MLB-best 27 doubles, and 60 RBI on the season. Willy Adames, Bryce Eldridge, and Helliot Ramos also play key roles on the team.

Angels vs. Giants pick, best bet

It has not been an ideal season for either team. But the Giants have shown more of a pulse and have picked up victories in the opening two matchups in this series. San Francisco won 7-6 in 10 innings in the first matchup, coming on a walkout double by Rafael Devers. The Giants produced a more convincing 9-2 win yesterday in which they lit up Ryan Johnson for eight runs in just 3.1 innings pitched.

The pitching matchup is a bit more difficult to protect for this matchup, with Carson Whisenhunt having just 34.0 career innings pitched at the MLB level to this point. There have been some encouraging flashes, but it is too small of a sample size to fully gauge, and he has not measured up against this Angels lineup just yet. My lean is toward Whisenhunt doing enough to put the Giants in a position to win and backing the moneyline to complete the sweep. 

However, my best bet for this matchup is for the game total to go over 8.5 runs. Jose Soriano has bled runs in recent starts, with at least two earned runs allowed in six straight starts and 11 of his past 12. He is posting a 5.23 ERA across this stretch. This is especially concerning as the Giants offense has been hot at the plate, recording nine runs yesterday and seven the game before this. Rafael Devers has been especially hot these past two games, recording five hits in the first two games of this series with two home runs and seven RBIs.

Both of these teams also rank in the bottom 10 in bullpen ERA on the season, so don’t expect the outlook to get much better on the mound if the starters are chased early. Expect both offenses to show some signs of life and for the 8.5 run total to be low given the context of this matchup.

Best bet: Game Total Over 8.5 (-108)

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