The Los Angeles Angels haven’t been contenders for months now--it only feels like they were eliminated by Memorial Day--but they’re definitely still relevant down the stretch. The Halos will get a couple of opportunities to play spoilers in the AL West race, first this weekend against the Seattle Mariners, then again during the final series of the season when they play the Houston Astros.
For better or worse, both opportunities are serious. The Mariners and Astros have been having another one of those September "battles" that no one seems to want to win, and they’re currently tied at 79-68 going into the weekend.
Last night offered a glimpse of what can happen. Faced with long odds in the first game of their road series against Seattle, the Angels proceeded to give the Mariners a battle that extended to 12 innings before the home team posted a 7-6 win.
The game also featured the 399th home run of outfielder/DH Mike Trout’s legendary career, and this was yet another example of what can happen when bad teams do bad things to good teams in a pennant race. Trout has been stuck on 398 for forever until last night, but when the lights got bright he suddenly rediscovered his power stroke.
The Halos probably won’t win many of these games, but their performance will be impactful. They have young guys playing for jobs, and veterans playing to hang on.
Moreover, the ‘Stros and Seattle will need every win as they’re scoreboard watching, so the difference between a series loss and a sweep for the Angels can be the difference between a one-game postseason cameo and a playoff series where the team that takes the division title can settle in and set its rotation.
Stats will play a big part in this sort of thing as well. Angels starter Jose Soriano is looking to build on a solid year and pad his numbers a little, but Soriano spit the bit after just four innings last night, which means his ERA is now over four. That’s a big deal in arbitration and contract talks, so failure in these games has consequences.
Fellow starter Yusei Kikuchi will take the mound tonight as another example. The 34-year old lefty has been awful lately, given up 18 runs in his last three starts. He signed a three-year, $63 million deal before the season, and that contract is starting to look like the definition of a bad deal for an aging journeyman.