Two teams taking inventory as the trade deadline approaches go head-to-head Friday night when the San Francisco Giants host a three-game interleague series against the Los Angeles Angels.

The Angels have lost 13 of their last 18 and the Giants 12 of their last 19, falling a combined 33 games out of first place in their respective divisions following their most recent defeats Wednesday.

Los Angeles has scheduled right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (3-3, 8.23 ERA) for the series opener, opposed by San Francisco ace Logan Webb (5-7, 3.87).

The curtain-raiser will feature a somewhat rare Oracle Park appearance by Angels legend Mike Trout, who has hit just one home run in 21 plate appearances over five visits dating back to 2015. In fact, the homer came in Trout’s second game in San Francisco on May 2, 2015, when he took Tim Hudson deep.

At the time, the Giants were the defending World Series champions, while the Angels were coming off a playoff appearance. Los Angeles hasn’t been back to the postseason, while San Francisco has experienced just nine playoff games in the past 11 seasons.

The Trout-Webb matchup has been entirely one-sided. They hadn’t gone head-to-head until last April, when Webb struck out his rival three consecutive times in some epic duels that lasted a combined 21 pitches. They haven’t seen each other since.

They also missed each other at the All-Star Game earlier this month in Philadelphia, when Trout started for the American League. Webb was not summoned from the National League bullpen.

The Angels and Giants enter the lead-up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline as potential sellers, and both Trout and Webb’s names have been mentioned.

Trout recently took time to claim he’s more interested in helping drive the Angels back into the postseason.

“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah,” Trout admitted to reporters. “But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”

The 34-year-old hasn’t homered since July 8 at Texas.

Webb is winless in three July starts, allowing 15 earned runs across 16 2/3 innings. He’s served up four homers in those outings after allowing just five through his first 14 starts.

Though the Giants find themselves in a deeper hole than the Angels in terms of playoff contention this season, Webb shares Trout’s attitude: fix the problem rather than leave it to someone else.

“We know we are capable of better,” he expressed recently to the media, “and we keep pushing ahead.”

The 29-year-old will be facing the Angels for just the third time. He has an 0-1 record and a 1.54 ERA from the previous two meetings.

Rodriguez has never faced the Giants, but he does have a winning record (4-2) in career interleague games.

The 26-year-old has been much better on the road (2-0 with a 3.48 ERA) than at home (1-3, 10.22 ERA) this season.

–Field Level Media

A timely attack and solid bullpen have helped the American League Central-leading Chicago White Sox match their season high at seven games over .500.

Chicago’s bid to keep climbing continues Friday with a visit from the Houston Astros for a three-game series, but the White Sox prefer to take things one game at a time.

“A lot of it is going day to day and not thinking too much about what’s going on the day before,” reliever Bryan Hudson said. “Focus on what’s in front of us and how we can win that day. Just keep going that way. It’s a good feeling.”

The White Sox have won three straight series as they return to Rate Field for the first time since sweeping the Athletics in the final three games before the All-Star break. The White Sox are 31-17 at home.

Chicago was idle Thursday after defeating the host Texas Rangers 4-2 on Wednesday. Chase Meidroth went 4-for-4 with two RBIs, Andrew Benintendi had two hits and two RBIs, and the pitching staff limited Texas to five hits.

Houston enters the opener of a six-game road trip coming off a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins.

Yordan Alvarez drilled a go-ahead, two-run home run in the eighth inning before Isaac Paredes followed with a solo shot to key a 5-2 victory on Wednesday.

Although Alvarez carries the American League’s top marks in batting average (.328), home runs (34) and RBIs (77), the Astros designated hitter prefers to avoid discussing what maintaining that pace would entail.

“I’m just focused right now on playing ball,” Alvarez said. “There’s more than two months remaining in the season, so I’m not going to talk anymore about the Triple Crown. I don’t want to answer any more questions about the Triple Crown.”

The Astros would rather address their pursuit of an AL playoff spot. Despite being four games under .500, they stand two games out of the AL West lead and also are part of a jumbled wild-card race.

“The expectation is to win,” said shortstop Jeremy Pena, who has homered in three consecutive games. “How do we get there? Everyone is showing up every single day. Everyone is trying to figure that out.”

Houston’s Spencer Arrighetti is set to oppose Davis Martin of Chicago in a matchup of right-handers.

Arrighetti (7-5, 4.34 ERA) will aim to win for the first time since he faced the Texas Rangers on May 28, a span of eight starts. After pitching to a 9.00 ERA in June, Arrighetti has allowed just one run in two of his three outings this month.

He took a no-decision against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, spacing one run, one hit, four walks and six strikeouts in five innings. Arrighetti is 0-1 with a 6.30 ERA in two career starts against the White Sox, covering 10 innings.

Martin (9-5, 3.31) has similar numbers versus the Astros — 0-1 with a 5.73 ERA in two starts over 11 innings.

Although he is coming off Saturday’s 1-0 loss at Toronto, when he worked 5 2/3 innings of one-run, four-hit ball, Martin said he felt “back in sync” mechanically after recent struggles.

“It’s a good tone-setter for the second half,” he said. “I think there’s some things we can get better on, but for the most part, just really happy with how we could make adjustments on the fly. I kind of felt more like myself, compared to the prior month.”

–Field Level Media

Trevor Larnach and Luke Keaschall delivered back-to-back RBI singles off Erik Sabrowski with two outs in the 12th inning, giving the Minnesota Twins a 3-1 victory over the host Cleveland Guardians on Thursday afternoon.

Larnach drove in automatic runner Ryan Jeffers and Keaschall plated Royce Lewis with the first hits for either team in extra innings. Sabrowski (3-2) had retired the first two batters before intentionally walking Lewis.

Taylor Rogers (5-3) earned the victory with a scoreless 11th, while rookie Jack Anderson picked up his first major league save with a hitless 12th to wrap up the combined three-hitter. It was the longest game in terms of innings for both teams in 2026.

Pinch hitter Alan Roden singled in Lewis with the tying run in the eighth for the Twins, who hadn’t advanced a runner past second base up to that point. Hunter Gaddis walked Lewis and Keaschall before being replaced by closer Cade Smith.

Cleveland went up 1-0 in the fifth on Patrick Bailey’s 420-foot homer to right off Taj Bradley. Bailey, who hit one home run in 30 games with the San Francisco Giants, has gone deep four times in 40 contests since being acquired in a trade.

Guardians starter Gavin Williams struck out a season-high tying 11 over seven shutout innings, only giving up singles to Byron Buxton and Kody Clemens while not issuing a walk. He threw 97 pitches in his third consecutive double-digit strikeout performance.

Williams threw the fifth immaculate inning in franchise history in the fourth, striking out Buxton, Ryan Jeffers and Josh Bell on nine straight pitches. The right-hander has made two consecutive starts with 11 strikeouts and zero walks.

Bradley matched the longest start of his career with seven innings of two-hit ball. He struck out five and walked three, allowing a homer for the fourth straight game.

Guardians rookie Chase DeLauter extended his season-high on-base streak to 15 games.

Minnesota’s Victor Caratini (right knee contusion) did not play after fouling a pitch off his knee Wednesday. He is considered day to day.

Cleveland won two of the first three games in the series, outscoring the Twins 24-16, and tied its franchise record with seven homers in a home game Monday.

–Field Level Media