The dog days of summer have come. And with it, another familiar headline for a baseball team that has not made the postseason since 2014. Since before the iPhone exploded into mainstream popularity. Since before Rob Manfred began his time as current MLB commissioner. When Mike Scioscia still managed this team that’s been through so many off-field scandals in the timeframe since. When I was a freshman student at my high school just blocks away from my house that I still live in. When this team still had a properly accurate city label in its name, only to have it be shredded off not long after. This time of year is the vortex of slumping known as August and my favorite baseball team has gone down that hole far too many times in the past several years. After futile trade deadline moves or none of them at all, the old struggles remain the same. Not enough clutch hitting offensively. Too many injuries to key players hitting and pitching wise. Bad outings by starting pitchers and relievers alike leading to painful losses in games this team needs to win. As the weather heats up even more, this team falls victim to the heat and opponents that are more resilient to handling the grind of a full 162-game season than this team is. This is the curse of the “Los Angeles” Angels(of Anaheim, the moniker that was deceivingly torn off nearly a decade ago), who are looking to stay in the American League playoff race but are fading out of it quicker than they expected.

As July concluded, the Angels had a record of 53-56, putting them at a mark of four or so games out of the final AL Wild Card spot. The trade deadline occurred on Thurs. Jul 31 at 3 p.m PT and the Halos made very little moves, acquiring a couple of veteran relievers and a backup infielder. Deciding not to sell off any of their key pieces that are tradable and on expiring contracts(like Taylor Ward, Luis Remgifo, Kenley Jansen, Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Anderson), the front office of the Angels organization decided to pick up a couple of relief pitchers to shore up the already-weakened depth of the bullpen. Luis Garcia(the Dominican-born veteran) and Andrew Chafin were acquired from the Washington Nationals in exchange for a couple of low-risk prospects in Jake Eder and Sam Brown on Wed. July 30. Then on deadline day, the Halos stood pat and the only move they made was acquiring a good defensive backup third baseman in Oswald Peraza from the New York Yankees in exchange for an international outfield prospect named Wilberson de Pena. Moves that they made to stabilize the roster were releasing third baseman Kevin Newman and sending Sam Bachman down to Triple-A Salt Lake. Another addition to the roster on the first weekend of August was the return of Christian Moore from the injured list due to a sprained finger he suffered in Atlanta in early July. The Halos were hoping for a surge of momentum after playing a game on 13 straight days and having their first off-day in the post-All Star Break schedule. But they were devastatingly defeated in series against the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers. Only winning one game per series(when they could have won two games in each of those series), the Angels had their tendency of living on the edge and winning by razor thin margins come back to haunt them. Instead of being 6-3 in the first nine games in August, the Halos are 3-6 and are on the edge of being irrelevant in the AL Wild Card chase.

Now after losing three of those six games by one run, the Angels are currently six games under .500, a ceiling of mediocrity that they have hit multiple times since late April, the last time they had a record above that mark. That’s not a good way to head into a crucial 3-game series against your biggest rival. That’s right, the second part of the six-game Freeway Series is here as the Angels will play host to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who will have plenty of their fans packing the seats of the Big A in going to games that they are more likely to afford than the average ticket prices of their expensive team’s home games. The Dodgers, as usual, are on top of the standings in their division and competing for a “first-round bye” in their league’s playoff picture. In spite of all the injuries that they have endured(it seems the injury bug has taken residence at Chavez Ravine than in Orange County this year) to their pitching staff and a couple of their big hitters, the Dodgers remain as strong as ever due to their biggest stars being available and clutch performances by some of their supporting cast. Winning plenty of close games and having just as many(if not more) walk-off wins as the Halos have this season, the Dodgers simply can’t be beaten enough times. But these games are important to the blue franchise that moved to L.A nearly seventy years ago as they are looking to hold off a division rival that went all-in for improving their roster at the trade deadline. The Dodgers are trying to hold onto a tight NL West division lead they currently hold against the San Diego Padres, who added big pieces at the deadline at the expense of some key prospects in their farm system. Only being two games up on the Pads entering this Part 2 of the Freeway Series, the Dodgers must find a way to win at least two games against their closer I-5 Freeway Foes in the Angels, who managed to sweep them at their stadium on a hill back in mid-May somehow.

The Halos won the first game of the three-game series at Dodger Stadium 6-2, then proceeded to win an offensive battle in Clayton Kershaw’s 2025 season debut with an 11-9 victory with clutch home runs by Taylor Ward, Logan O’Hoppe and Matthew Lugo fueling them to a series win at Dodger Stadium for the first time in many years. But they didn’t stop there as the Angels would clinch a series sweep of the Dodgers on a Sunday day game with a couple of home runs early on(and two RBIs by Travis d’Arnaud) fueling them to a 6-4 victory. It was the first three-game series sweep for the Halos over their cross-county rivals in Los Angeles since 2010. Now, all the Angels need to do is win one game in this three-game set in Anaheim and they will clinch their first Freeway Series season win since 2019. But they will have to face an old friend who now has returned to his two-way style of play slowly but surely in Dodger blue.

Shohei Ohtani has continued to rack up big offensive numbers in his second season as a Dodger after spending the first six seasons of his time in the major leagues as an Angel. Ohtani has had injury woes that have prevented him from completely unlocking his full potential as a two-way star. Shohei had his peak years with the Halos from 2021-23, when he had an average of around 40+ home runs and also managed to steal a lot of bases as well. As a right-handed pitcher, Ohtani put up such dominant performances that he would have a rule specifically tailored to him created so that he wouldn’t have to completely exit a game that he was pitching in. He can serve as the starting pitcher while he’s pitching and after being removed, he will revert to being the DH in the batting order. Shohei had this privilege taken from him for a short while due to another Tommy John-esque surgery that he underwent at the end of his time with the Angels. Signing his deferred money deal with the Dodgers in free agency, Ohtani would be very productive as an offensive player only in his first year with dem bums, who went on all the way to make it to the playoffs for a 12th straight season and used whatever pitching arms they had available to overwhelm each of their opponents en route to winning their seventh World Series in Los Angeles and eighth in franchise history. Now for this season, everyone had been waiting on Ohtani’s return to the mound and he would do some light work pitching-wise to start out the season. After suffering a litany of pitching injuries to their rotation, the Dodgers had Shohei finally make his pitching debut in 2025 for a game on Mon, Jun. 16 against the San Diego Padres. Ohtani only pitched one inning in a “opener” role, as the bullpen for L.A took on the load of innings and the Dodgers won that game. Dave Roberts has continued to use that short-load strategy for Ohtani, who eventually started pitching two innings per start, then three innings and now up to four in his most recent start against the St. Louis Cardinals at home. Now getting closer to pitching the required five innings to qualify for a potential win, Ohtani is slated to start on Wed, Aug 13 against the Angels in the Freeway Series finale. Could the Sultan of Strikes make it to five innings against his old ballclub? For context, Ohtani has pitched against at least one of his former teammates in a high-stakes game before in his career when competing for his native country’s national baseball team.

Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani were a good power couple who could never get to the playoffs enough due to injuries(mostly for Trout) and mediocre rosters built around them. Ohtani did get to face Trout in an at-bat that closed out an epic World Baseball Classic tournament that occurred in March 2023. Trout was up with two outs and Japan holding a 3-2 lead after getting a huge double play to start the ninth inning. Ohtani had gone to warm up in the bullpen to try and close out the tournament on the mound. Trout was looking to have a potential game-tying homer to keep Team USA alive in the championship game at loanDepot Park in Miami, Fla. Trout forced the count full, but Ohtani threw a nasty slider that Trout swung and missed at to end the tournament. Japan had won and Ohtani was the tournament MVP for his amazing feats of power at the plate and his masterful pitching style on the mound. Now, nearly two and a half years after that matchup, Trout and Ohtani will finally face off against each other once again and this time potentially for multiple at-bats. Trout will be playing in his first Freeway Series regular season games in three years and is now a full-time designated hitter. A fitting position to be in, as the opposing DH in this Freeway Series is Shohei Ohtani. The epic return of two-way Shohei to the Big A will occur on Wednesday and everyone with a vested interest will be watching to see who prevails. Will it be Ohtani who prevails or will it be the Angels(who have former Ohtani teammates in Trout, Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe, Jo Adell and Nolan Schanuel as potential batters in their lineup for that game)? Kyle Hendricks will be the starter in that game for the Angels, who will also have Jose Soriano and Tyler Anderson pitch in the first two games. For the first two games of this Freeway Series second part, the Dodgers will have Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmett Sheehan as starting pitchers.

The usual cast of characters alongside Ohtani shall appear in the Dodgers’ lineup, with a slumping Mookie Betts at shortstop, Freddie Freeman at first base, Max Muncy at third base, Will Smith behind the plate and Teoscar Hernandez and Andy Pages in the outfield. The Dodgers have a few of their key bats not active currently on the injured list, with Tommy Edman and Kike Hernandez on the IL. A couple of the high-end relievers that the opposing team in blue trim has are also not available as Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott are on the mend trying to recover in time for another postseason run. So, this isn’t a Dodgers team at full-strength. The Angels are more healthy than their rivals are, with the only significant injured player not available being Jorge Soler. This Freeway Series can hopefully be just as good as part one was for the Halos, who used that sweep over the Dodgers to springboard an eight-game winning streak in games played entirely in the state of California in May. The Angels are in a similar stretch currently, and the opponent that they faced to extend that winning streak to seven games are the vagabond Athletics, whom they swept in that tiny little minor league ballpark in West Sacramento, Calif. Guess where the Angels go after this three-game set against Los Doyers? Sutter Health Park, the temporary home of the A’s. So, there is a possibility for a winning streak at the most opportune time for this Halos team, which sits six games back of the final playoff spot in the American League currently with mediocre teams such as the Minnesota Twins(who had a fire sale of star players at the trade deadline), Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals ahead of them. Along with losses from those teams and a potentially long winning streak that could get them back up to .500, the Angels would immediately be legitimately back in the playoff chase. But time is running out as the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Guardians are the teams that stand closer to that final Wild Card spot. So, hopefully the Halos can have a rare mid-August surge to fuel them back into contention as these Freeway Series games usually bring out the best in them.

The dominant stretch that the Dodgers had(while Ohtani was on the Angels) from 2020-23 has eased off a little bit, with five of the last seven regular season meetings between these two I-5 rivals having been won by the Halos, who look to reestablish their power in holding the all-time season series lead over the Dodgers in the Freeway Series, which started back in 1997 when interleague play was approved to be implemented into the regular season schedule. The intense moment that occurred in one of the first Freeway Series games was a fight between Angels pitcher Tim Belcher and Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park in 1999 after Belcher tagged him out. Both teams have had plenty of thrilling victories against each other, but it seems that the Angels have had more walk-offs against the Dodgers than the other way around. Ironically, a spoonful of those were against Kenley Jansen, who is the current closer for the Angels after spending a decade-plus on the other side of the county line. There have been plenty of players who have played on both sides of the Freeway Series, from Garret Anderson, Albert Pujols, David Freese, Andrew Heaney, Tyler Anderson, Adam Kennedy, and Jeff Weaver. Now we have two-way Ohtani to add to that list and it will be that way for many years to come, as Ohtani might eventually be a National Baseball Hall of Famer and the ultimate debate of whether he goes in with the cult L.A logo on his cap or the simple A with the platinum halo around it will be determined by how much success he has with the Dodgers. He’s already gone to a World Series and won a ring with dem bums, but you never know what might be around the corner.

The Dodgers are perennial championship contenders while the Angels try to stay relevant in an era where payrolls are expanding and they are acting as if a salary cap is already in place(something that the owners want implemented and the players do not want at all). There couldn’t be a more tantalizing divide between both these franchises. But in the Freeway Series, it seems that the Halos take it more seriously than the Dodgers do. The players on the team actually located in Los Angeles brushed off the sweep in May on their home field. For this series, it might matter a bit more to the Dodgers because of how close the Padres are behind them in the standings. Every win counts at this stage in the season, especially when the NL playoff picture is pretty tight in terms of division leaders and whichever one of the division winners has the fewest amount of wins will have to play in the Wild Card round. The Dodgers wouldn’t want to end up there, so they might take this three-game set against the Angels more seriously. Whoever wins this series will win the entire Freeway Series, unless the Dodgers manage to win all three games and it will be a split like it was last year when these two teams only played four times against each other. Whatever happens, there is always going to be drama guaranteed in a packed stadium where there are constant cheers for both teams. You can only get that in Anaheim between both these ballclubs. We shall see what this series has in store for both these teams, as the Angels cling to slim playoff chances and the Dodgers look to increase their odds of winning the NL West again. Let the craziness continue!