Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels is most exciting series of April

Can the Angels harass the Stros’ pitching?

It’s evident that Los Angeles hasn’t faced a trio of scorching hot starters yet.

It will have that opportunity against Houston, which will throw Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton and Justin Verlander in the series, barring any unanticipated alterations. That could spell bad news for the Angels.

Teams accrued just eight earned runs against the three in a combined 57 2/3 innings. That adds up to a 1.25 ERA, which is pretty good.

What is more impressive is that they whiffed at least nine hitters in six of their nine starts. Of course, Cole has 36 strikeouts thus far through three starts, which ranks second in the MLB, which Max Scherzer ranks first but had four starts.

Houston already possessed one of the league’s best rotation prior to the offseason. General manager Jeff Luhnow then added Cole to improve it even more. Nevertheless, no one expected Cole to be this good.

But the Los Angeles Angels are in luck. What their hitters have done best this season happens to be these pitchers most significant faults thus far — home runs.

Altogether, Houston’s starters allowed 13 home runs in their first 15 games. Meanwhile, Los Angeles leads the league in bombs. That might allow the club to keep games close, even if the Houston Astros starters dominate its hitters for a majority of the series.

The Los Angeles Angels have a thin crew of starters, just like they did last year. More than a dozen different pitchers started on the bump at least one time. Only one of them pitched enough innings to qualify for any pitcher awards is Ricky Nolasco, where the journeyman boasted a dreadful 4.92 ERA.

Surprisingly, the starting rotation hasn’t pitched poorly throughout the beginning of the year. Though Matt Shoemaker hit the disabled list early, Andrew Heaney is back, and Garrett Richards looks like his old self.

And then there’s Shohei Ohtani, who has made quite a statement in his first two starts of the year. His most recent start consisted of a perfect game through six innings and 12 strikeouts. It looked like complete domination from the first pitch.

Thus, with Richards and Ohtani as the club’s one-two punch, Los Angeles should ultimately be better on the bump than last year. That is if the hurlers can avoid the disabled list.

But the front office will have to reel in a few All-Star arms to compete with the rotation in Houston.