Angels face Athletics in battle to avoid AL West basement

Two teams in a battle to avoid finishing in the American League West's cellar square off Friday night when the last-place Athletics open a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif.

The fourth-place Angels (66-74), who have 22 games remaining, hold a 2 1/2-game lead over the A's (64-77) in the standings.

Los Angeles also boasts an 8-2 lead in the series, including a three-game sweep of the Athletics in Anaheim on June 9-11.

Mason Barnett (0-1, 11.25 ERA), ranked the A's No. 10 prospect by MLB Pipeline, will make his second career start and first on the road on Friday.

He will be opposed by fellow right-hander Jose Soriano (10-9, 3.68), who has won back-to-back starts and three of his last four.

The 24-year-old Barnett, the 87th overall pick of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Auburn by Kansas City, was acquired by the A's at the trade deadline in 2024 as part of a deal that sent reliever Lucas Erceg to the Royals.

Barnett was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas with which he was 6-2 with a 6.13 ERA in 25 appearances (23 starts). He made his major league debut last Saturday against the visiting Texas Rangers and allowed five runs on eight hits in four-plus innings in a 9-3 loss. He struck out one and didn't walk a batter.

"He attacked the strike zone," A's manager Mark Kotsay said. "He got beat with pitches in the middle of the plate and up. Early on, it looked like the fastball had some life. He was getting some popups."

Barnett, whose fastball hit 97 mph, started the game with a 1-2-3 first inning but gave up three runs in the second on an RBI single by Kyle Higashioka and a two-run double by Michael Helman. He allowed an RBI double to Josh Jung in the third, and left after yielding a leadoff homer to Wyatt Langford to open the fifth.

"I think they picked up the release point and stayed on the breaking ball pretty well," Kotsay said. "He tried to mix up the game plan to come inside a little bit, and Langford ended up turning on that ball for his last hitter. Overall, it's encouraging that he's pounding the strike zone. We just have to work on maybe getting him some deception or just executing his pitches better."

Soriano, who is 1-2 with a 7.09 ERA in seven career appearances and five starts against the Athletics, hasn't allowed a run in each of his two past starts, a 4-0 win at Texas followed by a 3-0 victory at Houston. He has allowed just five hits in 12 2/3 innings during that span with 14 strikeouts and four walks.

Soriano especially was impressive in his last start in Sunday at Houston, allowing only a first-inning ground single to Yordan Alvarez and three walks over seven innings while striking out eight.

"Really, really good," Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. "The first two innings, he had a couple of deep counts, he had some 3-0 counts on a few guys. It was kind of out of character for him there. But he regrouped and came back in all those counts and really dialed it in after that. It was good."

The Angels finished a 10-game road trip with a 5-5 mark after losing, 4-3, at Kansas City on Thursday night. Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-out, go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning for the Royals.

-Field Level Media