The Los Angeles Angels open a three-game series at the Cleveland Guardians on Monday night, with Game One scheduled for 6:10 p.m. ET at Cleveland. The Angels enter at 16-25, while the Guardians are 21-21, making this a meeting between a team trying to stop the slide and another trying to find traction at home.

Monday’s opener sends Brent Suter and Alek Manoah to the mound against Joey Cantillo. Game Two is set for Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. ET, when Walbert Urena is listed against Slade Cecconi. The finale comes Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. ET, with Reid Detmers matched up against Parker Messick.

For Los Angeles, the numbers point to a club with a narrow path to scoring and little margin for error. The Angels are 16th in MLB with a 99 wRC+, but they have been among the league’s weakest teams on the bases and in the field, ranking 28th in baserunning runs above average at minus-2.6 and 27th in defense at minus-14.7. Their pitching has been uneven too, with a starting staff ERA of 4.05 and a FIP of 3.88, while the bullpen has struggled more sharply at a 5.38 ERA and a 4.98 FIP.

The Guardians arrive with a steadier run-prevention profile, even if the offense has not fully taken off. Cleveland is 19th in MLB with a 96 wRC+, but its starting pitchers have posted a 3.91 ERA and a 4.15 FIP, and the bullpen has matched itself at 3.98 and 3.98. The lineup has been driven by Chase DeLauter, whose 152 wRC+ leads the club, and by a group that also includes David Fry, Daniel Schneemann, Austin Hedges, Brayan Rocchio, Jose Ramirez, Travis Bazzana and Rhys Hoskins.

That is the tension in this series. The Angels have the star power of Mike Trout, who leads their offense with a 158 wRC+, but they also bring a profile that makes every mistake count. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has already been told not to let Trout be the hitter who beats Cleveland, and that instruction captures the stakes as well as anything: if the Angels do damage, it may not take much beyond one swing to change the shape of the week.

For Cleveland, the task is to use a home series against a struggling opponent to keep its season from drifting into something less controllable. For Los Angeles, the hope is simpler and more immediate: get enough clean innings, enough contact, and enough help around Trout to make the record look less like the story than the next three days do.