The New York Yankees stumbled out of the gate on their current nine-game West Coast road trip, but have recovered behind some good starting pitching to win four in a row. Now the AL East-leading Yanks finish off their trip when they hit Anaheim for three games with the Angels beginning Friday night.

The Yanks lost the first two games of a series in Seattle last weekend, then salvaged one game with a 7-1 win Sunday. New York then went to Oakland and swept three games from the A's this week by scores of  5-0, 10-3 and 4-2. 

So at 31-23 (through Wednesday) New York leads the AL East by two games over the second-place Boston Red Sox.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, just finished off a 3-3 road trip by dropping the last two games of a series in Kansas City. The Angels scored 10 runs in coming from way behind to win that series opener, but then scored just three runs total the next two games. So at 29-29 LA sits in third place in the AL West, two games back of the division-leading Texas Rangers.

New York will send Ivan Nova to the mound for Friday's series opener against Jered Weaver for the Angels (10:05 p.m. EST). Then CC Sabathia will start for the Yanks Saturday vs. Dan Haren, if his back is OK, for LA (9:05 p.m. EST). And Sunday Bartolo Colon will throw for the Pinstripes against Ervin Santana for the Halos (3:35 p.m. EST).

New York is a combined 19-11 when Colon, Nova and Sabathia start this season. But while the ‘over/unders’ are 9-3 in Sabathia's starts, they're 6-11 when Colon and Nova hit the hill.

LA is a combined 19-17 when Haren, Santana and Weaver start this year. But while the ‘O/U’s are 6-6 when Santana goes, they're 5-16 when Haren and Weaver start.

Offensively the Yanks rank only 14th in the majors in team batting average at .253, but they rank third in team on-base percentage at .336 and lead baseball in homers with 83 and in scoring at 5.2 runs per game.

Yankees pitching, meanwhile, ranks ninth in team ERA at 3.52 and 19th in quality starts with 30.

The Angels rank 10th in the majors in batting average at .257, but only 21st in scoring at 3.9 RPG.

Los Angeles pitching, though, ranks seventh in ERA at 3.42 and fourth in quality starts with 36.

On the injury front LA might get some good news this weekend if leading hitter Howie Kendrick, who's missed the last couple of weeks with a bad hamstring, can return to the lineup. He's eligible to come off the DL Saturday.

This is the first meeting this season between these two teams. Last year these teams split the eight-game season series. Five of those eight games played ‘over’ the posted totals, as the games averaged almost 11 runs per. And two of the three games these teams played at Angel Stadium went ‘over’ the totals.

Yankees vs. Angels Betting Trends

New York is 14-10 on the road this season.

The Angels are 13-13 at home this season.

The ‘over/unders’ are 26-24 in Yankees games this season.

Eight of the Yankees' last 11 games have played over the totals.

The ‘O/U’s are 24-29 in Angels games this season.

The ‘O/U’s are 8-14-4 in games played at Angel Stadium this season, which are averaging 6.6 RPG, third-fewest among all ML ballparks.

MLB Picks: Yankees vs. Angels Predictions

New York started slowly on this road trip, but is looking to cap it off with a good weekend in Anaheim. The Yanks are scoring plenty of runs and making money away from home. We give the Angels the pitching advantage Friday night, but Sabby and Colon give the Yanks the advantage Saturday and Sunday. So we'll take New York to win this series. Also, we like the ‘under’ on Friday's game.