3 reasons why the Angels are still in the running and 2 why they're not

3. Why the LA Angels are in the running: The team is showing fight

Remember when the team went on that horrible losing streak of 14 games? Yeah, it still stings, but this season appears to be different as we've already gotten to the point where that streak happened and the team looks to be in good shape.

The team took a game from the first place Rangers that took them 12 innings to do it and late heroics from Shohei Ohtani. They were already down 5-1 through 3 innings and they came all the way back to win 9-6. It has seemed like common practice for the team to punt the game after being down by such a large margin, but fighting back and rallying as a team was such a sight to see.

If the team can keep showing the same type of competitiveness towards teams that are in contention for postseason spots, then it might be a sign of good things to come. Beating up on teams that are worse than you are one thing, but putting up tough fights against contenders is another story.

It also helps having a manager that will stick up for his guys and Phil Nevin has been that for the team. While former Angels manager, Joe Maddon, did the same thing, Nevin seems to be in good connection with the front office in what they are trying to do while also letting him be a manager.

While we discussed some of the reasons why the team should still be in the hunt for October, there have been signs they are not going to be contenders.