Top 50 Angel Stadium Moments #21-25. Playoffs, No-Hitters and Clinchers.

Angels center fielder Mike Trout (left), Mike Butcher (center) and shortstop Erick Aybar celebrate after winning the 2014 American League West Division title. Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

#25 – Angels reach 100 wins in a season for the first time September 28, 2008.

When the Los Angeles Angels faced the Texas Rangers the AL West title had already been claimed by the Angels days earlier.  However, on this night 100 was on everyone’s mind.  The Angels in their then 47 year history had never had a team win 100 games.

The Angels sat on 99 wins with left-handed pitcher Joe Saunders taking the mound against the Rangers and starter Kevin Millwood.  The Angels started quickly scoring a run in just the second inning on an RBI-double by Mike Napoli.  Millwood recovered shutting the Angels down over the next two innings.  Meanwhile, Saunders was on a roll with six strikeouts in the first five innings.

In the bottom of the fifth Napoli came back with a deep home run to left to stretch the lead to 2-0. Saunders struck out the side in the sixth to raise his game total to 9 and the Angels bats finally broke things open in the bottom of the sixth.  Gary Matthews Jr. drove in Juan Rivera with a single, which was followed by that man again Napoli who drove in two more runs with another double to make the score 5-0.

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Saunders turned it over to the bullpen and they did not let him down allowing only one hit while striking out five in the final three innings to clinch win #100 7-0 for the Angels. Unfortunately for the Angels this was the high point of the season as the Angels were knocked out of the playoffs by the Boston Red Sox in four games.

However, it was still a memorable season and it laid the ground work for the 2009 season as the Angels turned the table on Boston in the playoffs, but more on that later in this article.