At long last the LA Angels have reached .500 with win.

The LA Angels have been playing better in the last couple of weeks & have been flirting with .500 mark. Tuesday night they finally broke even for 1st time in 2 months.

The fact that the LA Angels are now at the .500 is no small feat after the way they started the season especially the plethora of injuries they have had to overcome.  Do you get a medal for just getting to .500? Definitely not, and a .500 record will hardly ever qualify you for the playoffs, but it is symbolic of a team that is on the rise and could be on the verge of breaking through and back into the race.

There are many reasons that the Angels are on the rise.  They are getting better starting pitching as of late, the bullpen’s work as a whole has been amazing, and they have started to get some clutch hitting with runners in scoring position, especially two-out RBIs.

Tuesday night Brian Goodwin hit a two-out home run to give the Angels a 2-1 lead in the 5th inning.  That was all Tyler Skaggs needed as he pitched the deepest into a game of any Angel starter all season.  Skaggs handcuffed the Blue Jays for 7.1 innings holding Toronto to three hits and only one run with six strikeouts.  Ty Buttrey and Hansel Robles finished off the Blue Jays with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief to nail down Skaggs’ sixth win of the season.

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On a night when Andrelton Simmons went 3 for 3 in Rookie League at Orem signifying how close he is to returning and making this Angel team even better, the Angels did not get a ton of offense but they didn’t need much on this night with Skaggs dealing.  Kole Calhoun and Brian Goodwin each hit homers and Tommy La Stella drove in Luis Rengifo with an RBI ground out.

The Angels have now won seven of their last ten for the second time in a month and have gone 15-10 in their last 25 games after dropping eight of 11 in the middle of May.  The Angels are now just 2.5 games out of the second wild-card spot.

The Angels will now go for three in a row Wednesday when they send Andrew Heaney to the mound against Toronto and then Jose Suarez will finish the series off on Thursday before heading to St. Louis for the Albert Pujols reunion tour.

Andrelton Simmons will oust likely be activated in time for the Angels series in St. Louis.  This means that the Angels will now have to make another tough roster move when Simmons returns.  Most likely Wilfredo Tovar or Luis Rengifo will get outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake.  If it is Tovar then he will have to clear waivers before returning to Salt Lake City.