Angels Get Blanked at Home as Twins Pitching Shuts Down Struggling Offense

Well, that's egg on our face. We backed the Angels at -105 banking on home cooking and the Twins' offensive freefall, and Minnesota promptly rode that same sputtering attack to a 3-0 shutout in Anaheim. Turns out scoring exactly 3.0 runs per game over your last stretch is perfectly adequate when your pitching staff decides to show up with a vengeance.

Connor Prielipp's 5.24 ERA had us skeptical, but he and the Twins bullpen stonewalled the Angels completely, posting the goose egg and making our "stabilized" Angels lineup look utterly toothless. Meanwhile, Minnesota's anemic bats scraped together just enough—three runs against Grayson Rodriguez and company was all they needed when you're dealing a shutout on the road.

The market moved hard toward LA for a reason, we said. Home field matters, we said. The Twins can't score, we said. Except they scored exactly as much as they've been averaging, and the Angels couldn't muster a single run in response. That 0.86 ERA gap between starters? Prielipp made it look like the Grand Canyon.

Credit where it's due: Minnesota's pitching staff turned our logic inside out. Sometimes the cold bats get hot enough, and sometimes home field advantage means absolutely nothing when you're held scoreless. Tough miss. On to the next.