Los Angeles Angels Kole Calhoun ‘confident’ in offense.

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Kole Calhoun is remaining optimistic about the rest of the season, as is the rest of the team, as the team’s offense has come alive the past few weeks.

The Los Angeles Angels started April in a funk, as has been a problem they’ve had for several seasons now.

Injuries contributed to an 11-13 month of April where they scored only 80 runs, 24th in the Majors.

The Halos were a playoff-bubble team to begin with, but watching them struggle through the first month of the season was painful and convinced some that the team shouldn’t even bother thinking about the postseason this year.

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The skeptics had more reason to worry about the Halos after the team found a way to lose eight of their first 10 games in May, including getting swept in six-straight games at the Big A.

As hard it was to believe at the time, there was reason to be optimistic when reading inside the lines.

The offense, which was nowhere to be found in the first month of the season, found it’s step and Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and company started playing like their usual selves.

Trout, who hit .291 with five home runs and 13 RBI in April, caught fire the following month. He finished May batting .340/.445/.613 with seven longballs and 27 RBI in the month.

Pujols went from batting .176 in April to .278 in May, and Johnny Giavotella limped through an ugly .182 in April before batting .348 in May, second only to Cliff Pennington‘s .364 average with a (minimum of 30 at-bats).

Upon further examination, the Angels season really has been a tale of two months.

In April, eight players (including six starters) batted .267 or worse.

In May, seven players hit at least .278 and five of them batted over .324.

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The best part about the Angels sudden turnaround was that they figured out how to convert those hits into runs.

The team finished May scoring 143 runs, the fifth-most in the Bigs during that month, and their 5.06 runs per game was the fourth-highest total in the Majors.

“There was a lot of people writing us off early, and maybe they still are,” Kole Calhoun said to MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez following Friday night’s 9-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. “But I think everybody in here was confident that the offense can at least repeat what we did last year. We still have a lot of ball left to play and I think that still remains to be seen. But as of right now, we’re playing well.”

The team finished May winning 11 of their final 18 and are 1-1 in June following the win Friday night.

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The only problem, as has been the problem so many times before, is that the Halos have dug themselves into a deep hole and the AL West isn’t waiting for them to get out of it.

The Angels’ 25-29 record is good for 4th-place in the division, a solid 7.0 games behind the 32-22 Texas Rangers.

The team will have a chance to make up some ground against division rivals soon, though, as they’ll play a combined 13 games against the Oakland A’s and Houston Astros, consecutively, from June 17-29.

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Until then, the team can only focus on the team’s on the field against them, and if they keep hitting the ball as well as they have been, the can remain as confident as Calhoun is.