New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels Preview And Odds
Yankees On a Heater, Show No Sign of Slowing

After strong pitching carried them during the early part of the season, the New York Yankees’ offense has taken over in recent weeks as the combination of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto is simply dominating opposing pitching staffs.
The Yankees are 18-6 in May and will look to stay hot as they continue their MLB West Coast road trip in Anaheim against the last-place Angels, who just got swept by the Cleveland Guardians.
The Yankees vs Angels preview notes how New York is a -167 moneyline favorite in Tuesday’s night opener and is also favored at -1.5 runs on the runline. The total is eight runs.
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The Yankees dropped their series finale to the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon but New York has still been one of — if not the — best teams in baseball as of late. When you have two MVP-caliber middle-of-the-lineup batters as hot as Judge and Soto have been, it’s hard to lose games.
Couple that with how good the Yankees’ rotation has been, even without Gerrit Cole, and there’s no wonder why the Yankees standings are so impressive: They’re leading the tough AL East and have the third-best record in all of baseball.
Things are a bit tougher for the Angels. They took back-to-back series against the division rival Texas Rangers and Houston Astros but were outclassed by Cleveland over the weekend, losing a blowout on Friday night and then a pair of close decisions on Saturday and Sunday.
Los Angeles has been playing better baseball but with so many key contributors injured and an up-and-down rotation, it continues to be a struggle for Ron Washington’s team to win games.
No One Can Stop Judge, Soto
Judge is in the middle of one of the hottest stretches any player has gone through in recent memory. In his last 22 games, he is slashing .413/.531/1.013 with 11 home runs, 21 RBIs, 12 doubles and 25 runs scored.
He got off to a slow start this season but now has a 1.039 OPS and no Yankees vs Angels preview can overlook just how dominant that is especially when teams have to also contend with Soto following Judge in the order.
Soto has been more consistent than Judge — almost as many walks as strikeouts, 14 home runs, a .310 batting average — and has given the Yankees exactly what they were looking for when they swung the big trade that brought him to the Big Apple from San Diego.
If you’re making MLB picks and parlays, expect those two guys to do a ton of damage against an Angels pitching staff that has one of the highest ERAs in baseball.
Giancarlo Stanton, Alex Verdugo and lead-off man Anthony Volpe have all produced well offensively to boot, giving New York a top-five lineup to go with a rotation and bullpen that are each near the top in baseball across the board. This is a very scary team at full strength and it’s been without Gerrit Cole.
If Los Angeles could limit what Judge and Soto do, then the Angels could have a chance to take two of three but that’s an enormous if.
Saturday Success ✅#RepBX pic.twitter.com/ecI21nTsBu
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 26, 2024
Angels’ Rotation Is Shaky
Los Angeles will throw Griffin Canning, Tyler Anderson and Patrick Sandoval this week. As this Yankees vs Angels preview outlined above, the Angels’ starters will need to be on top of their game this week.
Canning, in particular, could have a rough time because he doesn’t strike out many batters — just 6.3 batters per nine innings — and has had a home run issue, allowing nine in 51 2/3 innings.
The Yankees lead the Majors in home runs, unsurprisingly, so that’s a bad omen for the Angels.
Anderson has been pretty good and while Sandoval’s ERA is over 5.00, his peripheral numbers indicate that he probably has pitched a bit better than his ERA and other top-of-line statistics would indicate.
The key for him, and the rest of the Angels staff, is to not let the rest of the Yankees’ lineup hurt them. You can’t let Judge and Soto get up with runners on base because that would really be playing with fire.
The Los Angeles Angels standings have been rough for a reason and the rotation shoulders a lot of the blame. The bullpen hasn’t been much better. This may not be the week for either of them to improve.
Go With The Yankees And The Under
At -167 on the moneyline, there isn’t much value in taking the Yankees straight-up so it might be smart to throw their moneyline in a parlay or go with New York on the runline to win by two or more runs.
They simply have such a big advantage over the Angels in all facets of the game.
With that said, the under eight runs at +105 is also a good take. The Angels have been decent offensively but the Yankees don’t allow many runs and they have a good pitching lineup of Nestor Cortes Jr., Luis Gil and Carlos Rodon. Expect them, and New York’s deep bullpen, to cruise.