The Atlanta Braves are in Anaheim on Monday night to face the Los Angeles Angels, with first pitch set for 9:38 pm ET at Angels Stadium and Chris Sale lined up to start for Atlanta. The matchup puts one of the game’s steadiest left-handers against a lineup that has missed plenty of bats and may again be short on pop.
Sale has given up one run on four hits while striking out nine over his first 12 innings, and that form matters against an Angels team with the fourth-highest strikeout rate in baseball. The split gets even sharper from the Angels’ side: they have posted the highest strikeout rate in 2025 when facing left-handed pitching, the kind of problem that can turn a night quickly when a starter is locating. Jose Soriano is expected to take the ball for Los Angeles, and he has not allowed a run on four hits over 12 innings this season.
The Braves have not exactly been a machine at the plate either. They scored 17 runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 2, but outside that outburst they have been held to four runs or fewer in four of their first seven games. That is the kind of uneven offense that makes a low-scoring game plausible, especially when it meets an Angels staff led by Soriano and a lineup that has ranked 20th in OPS and 21st in wRC+.
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The Angels’ problems have not been limited to this week. They have hit the Team Total Under in 31 of their last 41 games dating back to last season, a stretch that returned plus 20.90 units and a 43% ROI. The recent numbers fit what has been seen from the club against left-handed pitching, and they also echo Saturday night, when the Angels won 1-0 against the Mariners and needed Jo Adell’s glove to protect it. That win showed how narrow their margin can be when the bats do not supply much support.
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That is what makes Monday’s matchup more than just another early-season game. Sale arrives in form, Soriano has been hard to square up, and both lineups have already shown stretches of strikeout-heavy, low-output baseball. If the Braves do not find one of their bigger offensive nights, the Angels’ recent pattern suggests this could again come down to a run or two rather than a track meet.
