Angels Hold Team Meeting After Last Nights Loss

Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

There hasn’t been a lot of good to look at in this recent stretch for the Los Angeles Angels. But the fact is they’ve been here before. The whole season has been like this just a series of ups and downs. Last night Mike Scioscia held a team meeting where it appears everything was put out on the table. Here is what Scioscia had to say:

“We’re right in the middle of this thing,” Scioscia said. “And all it’s gonna take is really maybe one good game, hopefully, playing the way we can, setting up on our terms and moving forward from there. Because these guys are busting their butts. They’re playing hard. We just didn’t do anything the way we need to this weekend.”

Its hard to disagree with anything he said, other than the fact that this team needs one game to turn it around. They need to string together a few solid wins before this ship changes. The good thing about having a manager like Scioscia in this situation is his experience. For better or worse he can help keep this team grounded and focus on one game at a time.

The Angels are on the outside looking in right now in terms of the wildcard spots and the AL West division. But going forward they can control their own destiny. Its about beating the teams on the schedule from here on out and winning each series. Sure, the Angels may not have shown much of anything positive against the Blue Jays in a big series, but the Jays are arguably one of the best teams in baseball. From top to bottom they are clearly a better team than the Angels.

On the positive side, the Angels have a great opportunity ahead of them. The next 3 series are against teams that the Halos have been able to beat consistently this year: Detroit, Cleveland, and Oakland. With the Angels sporting a 13-7 record on the season against these three teams, hopefully the next 9 games could be a big step in regaining playoff positioning.

At least team morale still seems to be high:

“Nobody in here is panicking; there’s a lot of baseball left to play,” said Garrett Richards, who allowed a season-high nine runs in five-plus innings on Sunday. “I mean, obviously we’re losing, but everybody in here is ready to play every day.”

So while its very encouraging to see that the players still have the right mindset after a brutal series like the one they just had, its time to start winning. We have one month left of baseball to play and the Angels are quickly running out of time to use the “we’ll get em tomorrow” motto. It starts with this stretch of series that is most likely going to determine if the team is going to be in the playoffs or watching them.

Jered Weaver will take the mound against the Tigers on Tuesday 8/25 at 7:05 PM where the Angels will take the first step in this meaningful stretch of games.