Angels hit a historic August low that crushed their fledgling playoff dreams

From August 31st through September 3rd, the Los Angeles Angels won four of five games against the American League West leading Houston Astros and the AL Wild Card contending Kansas City Royals. Pre All-Star break, the Angels actually fared well against playoff teams -- they won a series in May against the Blue Jays, swept the Dodgers soon after that, won back-to-back series against the Red Sox and Mariners in June, then took three of four against the Yankees and swept the Red Sox later that month. The Angels held their own in the American League playoff race, but completely fell apart post trade deadline.

Angels hit a historic August low that crushed their fledgling playoff dreams

The Angels played eight series in August (excluding the Houston series, since it ended in September), and won just one -- their second sweep of the Dodgers. The Angels' .125 August series win percentage was their worst in franchise history. The Angels' one August series win was the fifth time in franchise history where the team could only win just a single series. The other occurrences: 2019, 1999, 1994, 1968. Overall, the Angels' .421 August win percentage is fourth worst in the last 10 seasons.

Some of the players that are most responsible for the poor August showing are Jack Kochanowicz, Tyler Anderson, the catching duo of Logan O'Hoppe and Travis d'Arnaud and some inexperienced position players in Christian Moore and Nolan Schanuel. Kochanowicz and Anderson combined for eight starts, an 8.67 ERA, 8.40 FIP, 1.87 WHIP and a near-even 5.20 K/9 and 4.95 BB/9. The catchers combined for a -1.2 fWAR in August, bucking their normal trend of one performing well while the other struggles. Moore struggled in his playing time before getting demoted, and Schanuel lost all pop at the plate due to his bone bruise in his left wrist.

By the way, the month of September has not been much more forgiving for the franchise. The Angels have the single-worst September win percentage from 2016-on. It's been so-far, so-good this month, but history shows that the team will likely hit a wall sooner rather than later.

2025 is starting to look more-and-more like 2023, as in both seasons the Angels bought rather than sold at the trade deadline and immediately went into the tank. The Angels have not placed any high-priced players on waivers like 2023, but their August was significantly worse.

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