The Giants defeated the struggling Dodgers July 18^th in impressive fashion in San Francisco. Giants Pitcher Ryan Vogelsong continued his impressive year of pitching and led the Giants to a 5-0 shutout of the Dodgers. Vogelsong has come on strong and has been the surprise of the year from the MLB pitching mound. The Win for the Giants brought their record to 56-41 on the year while the Dodgers slip to 42-54.

The Dodgers were unable to get a run across the plate while getting 7 hits on all for the day. Dodger Pitcher Chad Billingsley got off to a good start giving up just a run in the first 5 innings. In the bottom of the 6^th, however, the Dodgers were able to get 4 runs across. The loss for Billingsley brings his record to an even 8-8 on the season. The loss for the Dodgers away from home put their away record at just 19-27 this season.

San Francisco got 10 total hits on the day to get their 5 runs. One of the hits was a homerun off the bat of Pablo Sandoval. The homerun for Sandoval was his 9^th of the year and gave the Giants all the offense they would need on the day to get the victory. The victory by pitcher Vogelsong brings his record to an impressive 7-1 mark. The victory on the Giant’s home turf also improved their home record to 29-16 on the season.

The two teams will meet again July 19^th at 10:15 PM ET in San Francisco.  The Dodgers are poised to set Rubby De La Rosa to the mound against the Giants Madison Bumgarner. De La Rosa is 3-4 this season while Bumgarner brings a 4-9 record to the mound. Oddly enough, both pitchers have an identical ERA at 3.74. Given this and their records, we may see a lot of runs scored and a pretty close game on Tuesday.

The Angels were off on Monday the 18^th, but are set to start a series against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday at 10:05 PM ET. Both teams were playing well going into the All-Star break and are setting up to make a run in the second half. Currently, the Angels are 51-45 on the season and will look to improve on a 26-22 home record, as the Rangers will travel to their turf this upcoming series.

The Rangers are playing great baseball and are 55-41 this season. They will travel to LA this series, but have faired ok away from home on the year. Threy have been able to get victories away which helped to propel them to their impressive record. Away from their confines they are above .500 at 24-23.

Game one will feature Angels Tyler Chatwood against the Rangers Alexi Ogando. Chatwood has been average on the year and has an even 5-5 record with an average 3.62 ERA. Ogando has been more than average on the year for Texas and will search for his tenth win of the season. He is 9-3 this year with a low 2.92 ERA. Both teams look to improve and keep pace in the American League.