After a road trip that saw the Angels play their worst ball of the season (and that's saying something), the club headed home for a three-game set with the Padres. Thank God for the Padres, huh, Halos fans? A visit from Buddy Black's club proved to be just what our sputtering offense needed, as extra-base hits were flying around the Big-A like it was 2002 all over again. In the series, a struggling Chris Young was the only bona fide big league pitcher the Angels had to face, as before his start on Saturday, Pads ace Jake Peavy was placed on the DL. Still, these are the Angels, and the team has had a knack for making Triple-A scrubs look like Cy Young, so it wasn't quite a foregone conclusion that the bats would come alive. But come alive they did!! The Halos slugged 9 HR and scored 26 runs in the three-game sweep, highlighted by Torii Hunter's 3-HR game on Saturday and Juan Rivera's pair of round-trippers in Sunday's finale.
With the Angels sweep and the Rangers dropping 2-of-3 to the Dodgers, the Halos climbed to within 2.5 games of the AL West-leading Rangers. The AL West remains a very winnable division, and it looks like it's going to go down to the wire with the Angels and Rangers duking it out all summer. The Mariners are hanging around as well, but their offense makes the Angels' look like the Red Sox. The M's just don't seem like contenders to me, but Felix and Bedard should keep them around .500. Billy Beane's probably already begun seeing what prospects Matt Holliday will bring, as the young (and old) A's look at another disappointing season.
The main reason the Rangers are tops in the division is their complete dominance within it. Texas is 13-3 against the AL West this season. Conversely, the Angels are 9-12. If the Halos don't do something to turn this trend around, they will most likely be watching Nolan Ryan and the Rangers celebrate a division title. As the old saying goes, there is a lot of baseball left to play.
In researching some stats for this blog entry, I came across some pretty interesting numbers. Let's look at offense. The common thought is that the Rangers have a top flight, explosive offense and the Angels, well, don't. This really isn't the case this year unless you're only looking at HR totals. The Angels currently lead the AL with a .279 average and sit 9th in runs scored with 296. The Rangers (albeit without Josh Hamilton for much of the season) are 7th in the AL with 310 runs scored. That's it, 14 measly runs separating the powerhouse Rangers from the slap happy Halos. This isn't to say that everything's all good offensively in Anaheim. While the club has hit .280 with RISP, far too many of those hits have been singles. The Angels don't hit a lot of home runs, but it seems when they do hit one, no one's on base. Ever. They also haven't hit a ton of doubles this year either, meaning the Angels need three hits in an inning oftentimes to score a run. This needs to change. If it's a case of bad luck, they may be in line for a nice offensive boost very soon, but if it's a case of lack of clutch hitting, which is how it appears, the Angels mediocre offense will remain just that.
Scot Shields' season is over, and I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing for the club. Scotty just didn't seem to have it this season. If he was coming back, however, the club might have been OK with standing pat while the bullpen continues to struggle. With Shieldsy done, the club is now forced to look at bringing a good arm or two into the bullpen before the trade deadline. We'll have to wait and see who's available and just what the Angels are willing to give up.
A quick look at some HOT Angels:
Chone Figgins is now 5th in the AL with a .326 batting average. Figgy's hitting line drives all over the place from both sides of the plate and he's scoring runs too. He's currently tied for third in the AL with 47 runs scored. When Figgy scores, the Angels usually win.
Torii Hunter's 3-HR day on Saturday punctuated what's really been a two month hot streak. Hunter has really carried the club offensively and his 16 HR and 51 RBI are both 5th in the AL.
With Jered Weaver's CG shutout yesterday, the righty is now 7-2 with an ever-shrinking 2.08 ERA, good for second in the AL behind Zack Greinke's 1.72. Weav has been unbelievable lately, and looks like a lock for his first All-Star appearance.
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