Obstacles remain for Angels despite demolition of Marlins ahead of home opener

The Los Angeles Angels couldn't have started much worse. The Halos' visit to Baltimore on Opening Day was a nightmare. The Orioles dismantled the Angels 11-3 last Thursday and then followed that up 13-4 whooping on Saturday. It looked like the sky was falling.

But it would seem that Ron Washington's team meeting may have lit a fire under this club because the Angels have run off four straight victories and are in first place in the AL West after one week of play. What a time to be alive.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, though, Angels fans. There's still work to be done. So bask in the glory of a winning record, because it only gets more difficult from here (at least until the Oakland A's come to town).

The LA Angels were supposed to pummel the Marlins, so let's chill

The Halos did what they were supposed to do to the Miami Marlins this past week. The Marlins did everything they could this past offseason to tank their 2024 campaign. Miami parted ways with Kim Ng and did virtually nothing in free agency to help build off their success from a year ago.

The Marlins were the young upstart club in the National League that was supposed to challenge the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies for supremacy in the NL East. Skip Schumaker was the media darling and won 2023 NL Manager of the Year. But the Marlins did nothing this winter to take their team to the next level. Miami is winless on the season (thanks in part to the Angels), ranking 27th in ERA and 28th OPS. They're a bad team.

The Angels return to California on Friday for a date with the surprising Boston Red Sox. In the American League, only the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers have a better record to start the season than the BoSox. After that, LA gets a visit from the always dangerous Tampa Bay Rays before making another East Coast trip to visit both teams on their home turf.

The LA Angels schedule gets much tougher with the Reds & Phillies coming up

Follow that up with back-to-back series against two of the most talented young teams in the game, the Orioles and Cincinnati Reds, before the Angels finish out the month of April against the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies.

The Angels roster is flawed, but so far, the team has weathered the storm and came back with a vengeance during their last four games. After being outscored by 17 runs in their first two games, LA has outscored their opponents by 16 in their last four.

So while Angels fans shouldn't be riding high after the first week of the 2024 season, there's no reason to be down in the dumps either. The Halos, unlike almost every other team in the AL West, have avoided key injuries thus far.

LA needed to get off to a good start, but now the question becomes whether or not they can ride that momentum when they face more talented teams. This weekend's series against the Red Sox will be a good barometer moving forward.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout