LA Angels offense helps team avoid finishing in AL West basement

The LA Angels have a lot of things go wrong at different points of the season, but recently they have put together a good stretch of games & are trying to finish the season on a high note. What has led to the strong finish? A resurgent offense.

To say the LA Angels have been streaky over the last three months would be an understatement. Since the beginning of July the Angels have played the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde multiple times. The Angels went into the All-Star break winning four of six games and followed it up by winning six straight games after the break and had an overall stretch of 16 wins in 22 games through August 3rd which was their best stretch of the season.

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However, just when you thought the team was climbing back into the playoff race the team took a major nosedive losing 11 consecutive games which tied an all-time Angels record for futility. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse the team put together another hot streak winning 13 of their next 19 games. Then Dr. Jekyll reared its ugly head again as the team went through another tailspin losing nine of their next 10 games.

Thank God for Mr. Hyde’s return in the middle of September as the Angels are now putting together another hot streak winning 9 of their last 12 games that has allowed them to escape the cellar in the AL West. They Angels also most likely will avoid a 90-loss season (the Angels need one win it their final three games to avoid 90 losses). In Mike Scioscia‘s 17-year tenure as manager the Angels have never finished in last place or had 90 losses.

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However all is not rosy for Scioscia and the Angels as they have never finished lower than third place or finish with a worse record than they will finish with this season. Scioscia worst year as Angels skipper was in his second year as the team finished 75-87 in the 2000 season.

Back to the present now. In their last 75 games of the this season (this includes all the above mentioned streaks) the Angels are a respectable 40-35 (A far cry from the 32-52 record in the first three months of the season). What has been prevalent in all of these hot stretches has been strong offensive surges. In the second half of the season Andrelton Simmons, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, C.J. Cron, Kole Calhoun, and Jefry Marte have enjoyed multiple hot stretches.

In the Angels most recent stretch the team has scored five or more runs in seven of the nine victories compared to no five run outburst in the three losses. Both Mike Trout and Albert Pujols will most likely finish with 30+ home runs and 100+ RBI’s for the season (Trout is one homer and one RBI away from reaching the two plateaus). Cron has set career highs in homers and RBI’s as has Marte. Calhoun will also finish with at least 75 RBI’s and 17 homers. Simmons will also set a career high in batting average as he is batting .280 on the season.

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The Angels most recent series against the A’s was no different, although Monday night the team only put up two runs in a 2-1 victory. However the past two nights the Angels have put together two of their biggest innings of the season scoring seven runs in the fourth inning Tuesday to break open a one-run game. On Wednesday night the Angels dialed 8 against the Athletics erasing a 2-0 deficit and they held on for a 8-6 victory to complete a three-game sweep of Oakland.

Jefry Marte provided the big blow with aa grand slam on Tuesday night and Wednesday night Kole Calhoun hit a two-run blast to right and Shane Robinson hit a two-run triple to highlight the eight run fourth. In Marte the Angels may have found a cheap solution to their left field issue as he has shown some decent pop in his bat and his defense has been improving every game he plays in the outfield.

This time of year when your out of the playoff chase is your time to experiment and the Angels have been holding multiple auditions for numerous positions. The ones most fans are paying close attention to is the fourth and fifth starter spots as Jhoulys Chacin, Daniel Wright, and Alex Meyer, and possibly even Jered Weaver are trying to prove worthy of a spot in the 2017 rotation. Of those four players that I mentioned only Meyer is under contract for 2017 so he may win the 5th starter role by default. Angel Prospect Nate Smith could also join that mix as well.

Next: Mike Trout X-Rays on shoulder come back negative

So with this tumultuous injury-riddled 2016 season coming to an end this weekend, sit back and enjoy the Angels one final time this season.

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