Five pitchers throw four-hitter: Angels 7, Kansas City 0

In 2007, the Kansas City Royals traded Billy Buckner to Arizona for Alberto Callaspo. Both of those players now are with the Angels, and it's safe to say the Angels and Royals are going in two different directions. The Angels ran their winning streak to seven Saturday with their third straight win in Kansas City.

Hank Conger homered for the Angels in their 7-0 win Saturday in Kansas City (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 25, Angels at Kansas City. The Angels entered 21-27, third place AL West, 10 games behind Texas. Kansas City entered 21-24, fourth place AL Central, 5 1/2 games behind Detroit.

The pitchers: Angels, Billy Buckner, right hander (0-0, 0.00). Kansas City, Jeremy Guthrie, right hander (5-2, 3.49 ERA).

The result: Angels 7, Kansas City 0.

Summary: The Angels won their seventh straight and, for all their offense lately, they would have won this game without a hit. A week ago, the Angels didn't know who would start in this game, and they ended up with five pitchers combining for a four-hit shutout.

The pitching: Billy Buckner made his first start of the year for the Angels, becoming the tenth starting pitcher the club has used this year. Despite a fastball that never touched 90 MPH (according to MLB.com's GameDay feature), Buckner started with strike one on seven of the first ten hitters he faced. In the next two innings, Buckner started seven out of nine hitters with ball one. By the fourth, though, the Angels had a 1-0 lead that Mike Trout manufactured all by himself ...

There were two key at-bats for Buckner, and they both went his way. In the fourth, after Alcides Escobar led off with a single, Buckner immediately went 3-0 on Alex Gordon, Kansas City's best hitter (.337). Escobar had Buckner's attention and the pitcher's concentration was split between the pitcher and the hitter. Gordon swung at a pretty good candidate for ball four, a fastball down, and fouled it off. Then, Gordon fouled off a fastball right through the zone as Escobar ran. Next pitch, Escobar ran again and Gordon fouled off an offering a lot like the last one on 3-2. On the next pitch, a knee-high fastball over the plate, Gordon flied out to medium center field ... Turned out to be big. After Escobar stole on the first pitch to Billy Butler, Buckner pitched around Butler for a walk. Following that, Eric Hosmer hit a line drive right at second baseman Howie Kendrick, then Lorenzo Cain grounded into a force to end the inning.

The other big at bat was the last hitter Buckner faced, Kansas City second baseman Chris Getz with runners at first and third and one out after a double, a walk and a wild pitch in the fifth. Getz fouled off the first three pitches, then, on 1-2, fished at a changeup down and away and pulled it weakly on the ground to Kendrick, who started a double play. Getz argued the call with first base umpire Marty Foster, but he was out ...

Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie didn't allow a hit until Hank Conger, who led off the sixth right after the Getz double play, homered with the left field breeze at Kauffman Stadium. The Angels only scored three against Guthrie through seven innings, but they blew up for four runs in the eighth ...

The hitting: Hank Conger's homer in the sixth inning for the Angels came left-handed. All eight homers in the switch hitter's career have come left handed ... Josh Hamilton's batting average remains in the usual neighborhood, .222 now, but he homered in the seventh inning. It was Hamilton's 900th career hit ... Mike Trout set the tone on the bases again for the Angels. In the fourth inning, Trout walked, stole second and took third on a throwing error by Royals catcher George Kotteras, then came across on a ground ball by Albert Pujols, who never had an easier RBI ... Trout scored twice in the game, he now has scored at least twice in five straight games, the longest such streak for the Angels since Don Baylor scored at least twice in seven straight games during the 1979 season ... Trout now has scored 39 runs and is tied with Detroit's Miguel Cabrera for the American League lead ... Mark Trumbo was one-for-four, extending his hitting streak to 10 games ... The Angels were three-for-six batting with runners in scoring position. The Royals were zero-for-five ...

The fielding: Angels shortstop Erick Aybar is really making a lot of high throws, and he made another one in this game, enabling his Kansas City counterpart Alcides Escobar to lead off the fourth with a single ... Otherwise, the Angels were solid defensively ... Third baseman Albert Callaspo came in on a surprise bunt by Eric Hosmer, barehanded it and made the throw to first to beat Hosmer, who slid in head first ... Kansas City third baseman Mike Moustakas responded in the next half of the inning, taking extra bases on the line from Howie Kendrick and throwing him out to end the frame ...

The base running: Mike Trout seems to do this every day. He led off the second with a walk, stole second and took third on a throwing error by the catcher, then scored on a ground ball by Albert Pujols. The ball doesn't have to go very far from second base for Trout to take third without challenge ... In the fourth inning, Kansas City's Alcides Escobar stole third base with two outs against Angels catcher Hank Conger. But the next hitter, Lorenzo Cain, grounded out and the Royals didn't score. Conger later threw out Kansas City's Mike Moustakas trying to steal second base ...

Strategic moves: The Angels were crowing a bit to reporters Saturday about the pitching depth in their organization, and they have a right to it, considering, as manager Mike Scioscia pointed out, that four of the five pitchers in Saturday's shutout weren't on the opening day roster. Those four would be Billy Buckner, Dane De La Rosa, Robert Coello and Michael Kohn. The one pitcher who was around on opening day was Scott Downs ... The Angels starting rotation has an ERA of 1.76 in the last seven games ... The starters in that stretch have included Buckner , who made his first appearance for the Angels Saturday, and Jerome Williams, who didn't enter the rotation until May. That stretch also includes one poor start by Joe Blanton, and one good start by Joe Blanton ... With all that happening, help could be on the way. Jered Weaver is scheduled for a bullpen session Sunday and there have been reports that he might take his next start with the Angels. Also, the Angels are saying that pitchers Tommy Hanson and Kevin Jepsen could be activated this week ...

What now: The Angels now are 22-27, still third place in the AL West, and still 10 games behind Texas. But they have won seven games in a row.  Last year, right at about this time (May 22-29), the Angels won eight straight games, rallying from an 18-25 start to reach 26-25. The streak narrowed their deficit to Texas in the AL West from eight games to 5 1/2 games ... Which just shows how much more poorly the Angels started this year. The present streak began when they were 15-27, 12 games behind Texas ... Kansas City has lost seven straight home games and 15 of their last 19 games overall ... The present run of 19 games began with the Royals down only one-half game in the AL Central at 17-10 through May 5. Next day, the Royals ran into -- ready for this, Angels fans? -- Chicago White Sox left hander Chris Sale. The Royals scored a run in the first against Sale, then Kansas City starter James Shields shut down the White Sox, allowing two hits and striking out nine through eight innings. In the ninth, Kansas City manager Ned Yost, brought in closer Greg Holland to protect the 1-0 lead. Royals fans have since then blamed Yost for making the pitching change, but that's not what cost the Royals the game. They just didn't make a play with two out. Second baseman Chris Getz fielded a ground ball behind second base, but he couldn't feed the shortstop for a force play that would have ended the game as the White Sox scored the tying run. It's been downhill ever since then for the Royals ... Last time the Angels lost a game, Sale beat them, 3-0, in Anaheim on May 17. Five days before then, Sale almost rang them up for a perfect game on a Sunday night, but settled for a one-hitter in a 3-0 victory. The White Sox aren't anywhere this season, but Sale is in the nightmares of the Angels and the Royals ... The Angels will go for the sweep in Kansas City Sunday (11:10 a.m. PDT). The Angels will send right hander Jerome Williams (3-1, 2.53) against Kansas City right hander Wade Davis (3-3, 5.91) ... In addition to everything else going right for the Angels these days, they're about to finish a four-game series in Kansas City without ever seeing Shields (2-5, 2.47).

Grounding one out: Angels 7, Seattle 1

Some are saying the Angels' 7-1 win against Seattle in Anaheim Thursday demonstrates that they are exploding offensively. Really, though, the Angels just took what Seattle gave them, which was practically every ground ball they hit.

C.J. Wilson pitched another beauty for the Angels Thursday, and finally won one of them (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 3.0 license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 22, Seattle at Angels, American League. Seattle entered the game 20-26, third place AL West, nine games behind Texas. The Angels entered the game 18-27, fourth place AL West, 10 1/2 games behind Texas.

The pitchers: Seattle, Brandon Maurer, right hander (2-5, 5.75). Angels, C.J. Wilson, left hander (3-3, 3.72).

The result: Angels 7, Seattle 1 (Baseball-reference box score).

Summary: The Angels swept their two-game series against Seattle by the continuation of trends that preceded it -- strong Angels hitting and weak Seattle pitching (and defense). Cumulative score over the two games: Angels 19, Seattle 1. The Angels have won four games in a row.

The pitching: Angels starter C.J. Wilson had lost his two most recent starts, despite pitching well, because, in each instance, his own hitters were overmatched by Chicago left hander Chris Sale. Against the considerably less formidable Brandon Maurer, Wilson received considerably more offensive support, and Wilson fed off of it. Wilson retired the Mariners in order in the second, fourth and seventh innings. In the third, fifth and sixth innings, Wilson retired the first two hitters before the Mariners put someone on, only for Wilson to retire the next batter and finish the frame. Through seven innings, Wilson struck out eight and walked one, despite throwing only 89 pitches ... He briefly lost control in the eighth, when he walked leadoff hitter Brendan Ryan, then threw a wild pitch, which, combined with a throwing error by catcher Hank Conger, placed Ryan on third. A ground ball plated Ryan with Seattle's only run, then Wilson ended his night characteristically, picking up his tenth strikeout of the game to set down Justin Smoak and finish the eighth inning ...

Seattle starter Brandon Maurer, who went to high school at Orange County Lutheran, fell behind, 5-0, before he could get three hitters out and eeked out three innings. But don't blame Maurer, who would have been out of that inning without damage if he had decent infield play behind him ... His replacement, Charlie Furbush, struck out three in three innings, tossing 23 strikes out of 27 pitches. But the game was all but over by the time he entered to start the fourth inning ...

The hitting: Is the Angels hitting really surging? Or is the Seattle pitching and defense really tanking? The Angels have scored 37 runs in their last four games, while Seattle has allowed 35 runs in its last four games ... We're going with the latter, because the Angels received a lot of help from the Seattle infielders -- and the official scorer at Angel Stadium. In the first inning, hits by Albert Pujols and Mark Trumbo were easily playable by Seattle infielders, and the inning stayed alive because the Mariners muffed a double-play ball and could only get a force at second. In the second inning, Mark Trumbo's infield single was a ground out that received a favor (see below, "The fielding") ... Of the six hits the Angels put together in the first inning, the worst count on any of those was 2-2. Four of the hits came with hitters ahead in the count, and Mark Trumbo hit his single on the first pitch ... First-pitch hitting is quite Trumbo’s style this year, when he is 14-for-33 (.424) with five homers on that first offering. For his career, Trumbo is hitting .323 (52-for-161) with 15 homers on the first pitch, .367 (97-for-264) with 19 homers when he is ahead in the count, .277 (133-for-480) with 33 homers when the count is even, and .196 (106-for-540) with 19 homers when he is behind in the count ...

Mike Trout hit for the cycle Wednesday night in the Angels' 12-0 win against the Mariners, becoming the sixth youngest player ever to cycle at 21 years and 288 days. The Angels attributed the following to ESPN Stats & Info: Trout became only the third player in history to cycle, drive in five runs and steal a base in the same game, and the first since 1932. The others were Babe Herman with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931 and Tony Lazzeri with the New York Yankees in 1932 ... Thursday, Trout was two-for-four with two runs. The Angels are 15-9 when Trout scores and 4-18 when he doesn't ... Since April 29, when the Angels lost, 10-8, in 19 innings at Oakland, Trout is batting .359 (28-for-78) with five doubles, four triples, seven homers and 22 RBI in 21 games ... When Albert Pujols scored in the first inning, it put him at 1,400 runs in his career, 90th on the all-time list ... Pujols appears to be waking up at the plate, with five multi-hit games in his last eight. His average in those games is .333, bringing his average for the season up to .253 ...

The base running: In a game like this for the Angels, the manager need only fill out the lineup card and let them play ... Erick Aybar led off the first inning with a walk for the Angels, then got thrown out trying to steal, and the Angels still scored five runs in the frame ... With all the infield hits for the Angels, this game was a simple matter of station-to-station base running ...

The fielding: Wednesday's performance by Seattle infielders had to be among the worst in Major League Baseball this season ... In the first inning, Albert Pujols singled on a popup that really should have been caught by Seattle second baseman Dustin Ackley. Next, Mark Trumbo hit a ball to the hole between short and third. Mariners shortstop Brendan Ryan, who usually is a sure hand, had the ball in his glove and dropped it. Two hitters later, Howie Kendrick hit a tailor-made double-play ball to Ackley, who dropped it, and the Mariners could only get a force at second. In the second inning, Mark Trumbo's ground ball to third baseman Robert Andino found a glove, then lost it ... No errors scored in any of that ... The Angels defense came frayed late in the game. Angels left fielder J.B. Shuck appeared to get at least slightly lost on a Kendrys Morales double, which dropped to Shuck's right. In the ninth, Angels shortstop Erick Aybar dropped a pop-up fly in short left field by Brendan Ryan ...

Strategic moves: The Angels were good enough in this game, but they were even luckier enough. Luck isn't what you would call a strategy, but the Angels didn't generally push their luck, and that is a strategy. They just put the ball in play and let the Mariners drop it ... Try putting this together: The Mariners are 15-10 when Jesus Montero is their starting catcher, and 5-17 when he isn't. Yet, Montero is having a terrible season, batting .208, dropping pitches and throwing out only one out of 24 runners who have attempted stolen bases against him. By at least one report, the Mariners are about to send him down ...

What now: The Angels improved to 19-27, still fourth in the AL West and 10 1/2 games behind Texas. But they are breathing heavily on Seattle, which is the third-place team in the AL West at 20-27, 10 games down ... The Angels now go to Kansas City, which is really flagging since winning two of three in Anaheim May 13-15. Since then, the Royals have lost five of six, scoring one run in three of those losses. They just lost two out of three at Houston ... Friday night's series opener (5:10 p.m. PDT) illustrates a real twist of fate for the Angels, who decided that their rotation would be better off if it included Joe Blanton and didn’t include Ervin Santana. The right hander Blanton (0-7, 6.62) will take the ball for the Angels against the right hander Santana (3-3, 2.77) for the Royals.

Walking to a win: Angels 12, Chicago 9

Such an unlikely way for the Angels to win a game. They walked 10 times, Alberto Callaspo drove in five runs and they came back from a 4-0 deficit to defeat the Chicago White Sox, 12-9, Saturday at Angel Stadium. The Angels won for the first time in Joe Blanton's nine starts for them, and he wasn't very good.

Angels third baseman Alberto Callaspo led the way Saturday with five RBI (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 2.0 license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 18, Chicago at Angels, American League. Chicago entered 19-21, tied for fourth AL Central, four games behind Detroit and Cleveland. The Angels entered 15-27, fourth place AL West, 12 games behind Texas.

The pitchers: Chicago, Hector Santiago, left hander (1-2, 2.33). Angels, Joe Blanton, right hander (0-7, 6.46).

The result: Angels 12, Chicago 9 (Baseball-reference.com box score).


Summary: We always say that anytime you watch a baseball game, you might see something you've never seen before. The Angels walked 10 times Saturday. Maybe we've seen that before, but possibly not, as the Angels are in the bottom half of the American League in walks every year since Mike Scioscia became their manager. Anyway, the Angels needed all of those walks to overcome a 17-hit onslaught by Chicago, which remains the worst offensive team in the AL.

The pitching: When the closer gives up a three-run homer and still gets a save, you know this particular game is not about pitching. Angels closer Ernesto Frieri did exactly that, coming into a 10-6 Angels lead with two out in the eighth and two men on, meaning the tying run was on-deck. On the second pitch he threw, Frieri gave up a base-clearing bomb to Hector Gimenez, the reserve catcher who towered above all other hitters on a day when everyone was Stan Musial. However, Frieri finished off the eighth, then struck out all three hitters he faced in the ninth for his eighth save of the year ... Angels starter Joe Blanton courted disaster for three innings and finally won her heart in the fourth. Blanton gave up two hits in each of the first three innings and left them all on base. In the fourth, he walked a hitter, gave up a hit, then, with two out, hit Chicago's Alexei Ramirez with a pitch. This time, the dam broke. Alex Rios hit a hard ground ball off the glove of third baseman Alberto Callaspo, who leaped into the air going to his left. Two runs scored on the double. On the very next pitch, Adam Dunn singled to right, driving in two more ...

The life savers in this game for the Angels were middle relievers Robert Coello and Dane De La Rosa, who combined for 2 2/3 shutout innings to get the club through a fifth-inning jam and carry them through the seventh with a 5-4 lead. Coello entered for Blanton with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth, then struck out Ramirez and the hot-hitting Rios, both swinging at hard, sinking fastballs. The right hander now has pitched seven innings over five appearances without giving up a run ... The Angels brought in Garrett Richards, recently converted to the bullpen, for the second day in a row to pitch the eighth inning. It didn't work out. Richards gave up four runs (though two came on the homer against Frieri) in 2/3 of an inning. His ERA ballooned from 4.78 to 5.63, almost a full run. Being fair to Richards, two of the four hits he allowed were infield hits ...

The White Sox got no pitching from anybody. Sox hurlers faced 45 hitters and turned only 22 of them into outs. The other two outs for the Angels came when Albert Pujols hit into a double play and Mike Trout was caught stealing.

The hitting: When Alex Rios bounced his double high off the leaping glove of Angels third baseman Alberto Callaspo to trigger a four-run inning in the fourth, probably no one figured Callaspo would be the man to lead the Halos out of their resulting 4-0 hole. But Callaspo put the ball into the air to hit two sacrifice flies and a three-run homer, leading the club with five RBI ... The switch-hitting Callaspo hit the ball hard from each side of the plate. Batting right-handed, he took Chicago left fielder Dayan Viciedo all the way to the wall in the second inning, hit a line-drive single to left in the fourth, then greeted Sox reliever Donnie Veal, a lefty, with a three-run homer to left in the seventh. Batting left-handed, Callaspo hit a sacrifice fly to the front of the track in right field, driving in Mark Trumbo to give the Angels a 5-4 lead in the fifth. He didn't hit the ball as hard from the left side in the eighth, but he got the job done with a sacrifice fly to left field ... Of the ten different players who took at-bats for the Angels Saturday, all of them walked at least once, except for Callaspo, Albert Pujols and Howie Kendrick. But Callaspo drove in five runs, while Pujols and Kendrick each had two hits ...

If the Angels are to make anything of this season and it turns out to have started with this game, then we might look back on Trumbo's fourth-inning homer as the turning point. The Angels offered this to reporters: After Chicago scored four in their half of the inning for a 4-0 lead, they were telling each other to just get one back and keep playing. Then, Trumbo led off with his homer to left. You wouldn't expect a guy who homered to bring his 15-27 team within 4-1 in the fourth inning to be especially juiced, but Trumbo's excitement coming around the bases was hard to miss, especially his hard hand slap with third base coach Dino Ebel as he headed for home ... Then again, we shouldn't be too surprised about Trumbo. This guy is a really good player in many ways. He plays a nice first base, he's adequate in the corner outfields and he can handle designated hitter, so he gives his manager a lot of flexibility, in addition to extra base pop ... With two RBI Saturday, Trumbo has driven in 17 runs in his last 19 games. He's only eight-for-42 in his most recent ups, but he makes the hits count. Of his last 18 hits, 13 are for extra bases (six doubles and seven homers) and, as we've said, he drives in runs ...

Another interesting player for the Angels right now is this pop-gun corner outfielder, left-handed hitting J.B. Shuck. When club owner Arte Moreno isn't looking because he's so fixated on adding glitter to the roster, Shuck is the kind of guy who an astute baseball person sneaks onto the team. Houston gave up on Schuck during the winter and cut him loose, apparently because he has absolutely no power -- just seven homers in 2,463 professional plate appearances, no homers anywhere since 2010 and no homers at all above the Class AA level. He's a singles hitter all the way ... But he has a career minor league batting average of .301 in 2,299 plate appearances, never batted lower than .292 in any of his five minor league seasons, and never had a minor league on-base percentage lower than .366. Two interesting figures for Shuck: his career minor league on-base percentage is .382, and his career minor league slugging percentage is .381. He has more walks than strikeouts every year except one. In his last two seasons of Class AAA ball, he played 223 games, walked 95 times and struck out 50 times ... And he runs well, though probably not well enough right now to be an effective base stealer. In those two years at Oklahoma City (Pacific Coast League), Shuck was 32-for-51 in stolen base attempts, 62.7 percent. He needs to be around 75 percent to make the successful steals worth the outs they cost. But he's only 25 and, perhaps, a little instruction could make him a threat to steal ... And he has handled himself well in left field and right field for the Angels ... Anyway, Shuck had another nice game Saturday, two-for-four with three RBI, including a two-run double. He's batting .306 ... Could go on and on here. Lots to like about this player.

The White Sox, of course, had their hitters on this day ... Shortstop Alexei Ramirez and designated hitter Paul Konerko each had three hits ... The day turned two other White Sox into .300 hitters. Alex Rios kept a 13-game hitting streak alive with a two-for-four day, pushing his batting average up to .302. And Dayan Viciedo was two-for-three, pushing his average up to .303 ... However, Adam Dunn kept a five-game hitting streak alive, and it hasn't even made him a .200 hitter. Dunn is eight-for-22 (.363) on his streak, bringing his season average up to a lusty .173 ... The big bopper for the White Sox was backup catcher Hector Gimenez, a switch hitter who was four-for-five with a three-run homer.

The base running: One never knows what base running like this actually costs a club, but, for example, Chicago's Alexei Ramirez only went from first to second on a single to right field by the next hitter, Alex Rios, with one out in the first inning. The Angels right fielder, Mark Trumbo, played deep against Rios and never had a chance to catch the ball. There was absolutely no danger of Ramirez being thrown out at third and, with one out, he has to get there. As it turned out, the next two hitters, Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko, both struck out swinging against Angels starter Joe Blanton to end the inning. But if Ramirez were on third, particularly during Dunn's at-bat, that would have dictated a change of approach for the hitter and the pitcher, perhaps with a different result. The White Sox lamented after the game that they didn't make enough of their early opportunities, but here was a case where they didn't even make an early opportunity ... Ramirez did go from first to third without a throw on Konerko's two-out single to center in the third ...

Albert Pujols can't be feeling good with that plantar fasciitis in his left foot, but he doesn't stop running. He hustled out a double to short right in the fifth, enabling himself to easily score the tying run for the Angels on Mark Trumbo's double to the wall in right center ... Mike Trout always likes to get out and run for the Angels, and one can see why. In the first, Trout singled, only to be erased on Pujols' double-play grounder. In the third, Trout walked, only for Pujols to hit into a force play to end the inning. In the seventh, Trout walked and, this time, he tried to steal second with Pujols batting. But he was thrown out. Then, Pujols struck out looking. Who knew that it would be the start of a five-run inning for the Angels? In the eighth, Trout led off with a walk, moved from first to third on Pujols' single to right, then scored on a double by Howie Kendrick.

The fielding: For all his offensive prowess Saturday, Alberto Callaspo isn't what he used to be at third base for the Angels, and it's no wonder he's splitting the position with rookie Luis Jimenez. Callaspo struggles going to his left and coming in on balls. Saturday, three plays -- only one of them easy, granted -- got the better of him. In the second, he couldn't get enough zip on his throw to turn Dayan Viciedo's chopper into an out. In the third, he misplayed an easy roller by Alexi Ramirez down the third base line into a hit. And in the fourth, there was that high bouncer by Alex Rios that skipped off Callaspo's glove for a two-run double ... Angels right fielder Mark Trumbo mishandled Adam Dunn's single in the fourth inning, but with two out and runners on second and third, those two runs were going to score, anyway ... Trumbo took over first base for Brendan Harris in the seventh and made a short diving stop to his right against Tyler Greene to end that inning ...

The White Sox removed Dunn from first base in the fifth inning because of a bad back. His replacement, Jeff Keppinger, made nice diving stop to his right in the sixth, turning Chris Iannetta's sure leadoff single into a ground out ... While going four-for-five at the plate, White Sox catcher Hector Gimenez also let by two passed balls and couldn't block a wild pitch. Fortunately for him, none of those plays ultimately resulted in any Angels scoring.

Strategic moves: How does strategy play into a game like this? Either the pitchers get guys out, or they don't. By the numbers, the Angels are an average offensive team in the American League, and they scored 12 runs in eight innings of hitting. The White Sox have the worst offensive numbers in the league, and they scored nine runs ... To start the seventh, leading, 5-4, Angels manager Mike Scioscia made a couple of defensive substitutions, moving Mark Trumbo from right field to first base, removing Brendan Harris from first base, and taking Josh Hamilton off the bench and putting him in right field. Trumbo immediately rewarded Scioscia with a nice play at first base. Trumbo walked in the bottom of the seventh and scored on Alberto Callaspo's three-run homer, then Hamilton followed Callaspo's homer with a one-out single and later scored on J.B. Shuck's double. In the eighth, after the Angels already expanded their lead to 12-9, Hamilton drew an intentional walk ... Did these moves by Scioscia help? They certainly didn't hurt.

What now: The Angels improved to 16-27, still fourth place in the AL West, still 12 games behind Texas. They snapped a three-game losing streak and avoided their worst 43-game start since 1976, when they were 15-28. The Angels are 7-7 against the AL Central and 9-20 against all other clubs ... The White Sox now are 19-22, still tied with Minnesota for fourth (and last) place in the AL Central, but now five games behind Detroit and Cleveland ... The Angels will try for a split in this four-game series Sunday (12:35 p.m. PDT) at Angel Stadium. Left hander Jason Vargas (2-3, 4.03) will throw for the Angels. Vargas is 2-0 with a 2.91 ERA in May. The White Sox will answer with right hander Jake Peavy (5-1, 2.96), who is going for a fourth straight win for the first time since the second half of the 2009 season ... Saturday was the anniversary of the very first game the Angels and White Sox every played against each other. On May 18, 1961, before 3,740 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, the White Sox prevailed, 6-4.

Sale sails: Chicago 3, Angels 0

Chicago left hander Chris Sale posted another gem against the Angels Friday night, and he now has shut them out in 16 2/3 innings over his last two starts. The result was a 3-0 win for the White Sox and a second straight hard-luck loss for Angels left hander C.J. Wilson.

Chicago White Sox left hander Chris Sale tossed another beauty at the Angels Friday night at the Big A (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 2.0 license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 17, Chicago White Sox at Angels. Chicago entered 18-21, fifth place AL Central, four games behind Detroit and Cleveland. The Angels entered 15-26, fourth place AL West, 12 games behind Texas.

The pitchers: Chicago, Chris Sale, left hander (4-2, 2.88). Angels, C.J. Wilson, left hander (3-2, 3.88)

The result: Chicago 3, Angels 0 (Baseball-reference.com box score).

Summary: Chicago left hander Chris Sale tossed his second scoreless start at the Angels this week, which made solo homers by Alex Rios and Adam Dunn sufficient for the White Sox to win. The Angels had absolutely no margin for error in this one, but they fell behind right away and they stayed behind.

The pitching: After throwing a one-hit shutout at the Angels this past Sunday night, when he flirted with a perfect game, Chicago left hander Chris Sale allowed only three hits in 7 2/3 innings Friday night to shut down the Angels. Sale flies all over the place, comes down almost side-armed, appears to put a lot of pressure on his left elbow and might not be long for this world mechanically. At this point in his life, though, his fastball comes in at a hard 95 MPH and his breaking pitches have devilish spin. Not even veteran right-handed hitters look comfortable against him, and left-handed hitters can't touch him. Left-handed batters are three-for-48 against him this year ... Sale now has 23 consecutive scoreless innings in his last three starts.

Angels starter C.J. Wilson has pitched well enough to win in his last two starts, but his opponent each time was Sale, who's just too much for Angels hitters. Wilson probably would like to have back the 0-2 cutter he threw to Alex Rios with two out in the first inning. Rios hit it over the fence for a 1-0 Chicago lead ... The White Sox scored their other run against Wilson on a preventable single, followed by a base advance by the White Sox with aggressive base running, then a clean single ... Angels reliever Garrett Richards gave up a solo homer to Adam Dunn, so he has allowed a run in each of his last two appearances after three straight scoreless outings. However, because his last two appearances were two innings each, he actually has brought his ERA down slightly in those games, from 4.81 to 4.78.

The hitting: The Angels put Mike Trout on third with two out in the first, and they put Mark Trumbo on second with one out in the fourth. Neither scored and the Angels mounted no other threats ... In the first instance, Trout walked, then, on a 1-0 pitch, took third on a stolen base and a throwing error with Trumbo batting. Trumbo didn't get the run in, but he can't be faulted for that because he walked on four pitches. After the stolen base and throwing error, Sale threw Trumbo two pitches high and outside the strike zone to complete the walk. With the runner on third, Sale just didn't want to pitch to Trumbo, who entered the game three-for-six against the left hander. Trumbo ended the night one-for-two with a walk against Sale. Next up came Josh Hamilton with an interesting at-bat. Sale started him with three sliders -- a called strike, a foul ball and a ball in the dirt for a 1-2 pitch. Everyone who watches the Angels knows that Hamilton is already out with two strikes on him because he'll wave at soft breaking pitches low and away in a futile bid to protect the strike zone. But Sale already tried that on 0-2 and threw it in the dirt. So, Sale came back at Hamilton with a 1-2 fastball on the hands, which Hamilton popped up to third base ... In the second instance, after Trumbo doubled with one out in the fourth, Hamilton went down waving at an 0-2 slider that went in the front door, then Howie Kendrick went down swinging at a 1-2 slider down and away ...

For the White Sox, Alex Rios extended his hitting streak to 12 games by homering for the second straight night against the Angels ... Adam Dunn homered for the fourth time in four games, and it could be five homers if he hadn't been robbed of one earlier this week at Minnesota ... The White Sox remain last in the American League in runs per game (3.60), batting average (.237), on-base percentage (.288), OPS (.674) and OPS-plus (78). However, thanks largely to Chris Sale's pitching, the White Sox have won their last three against the Angels.

The base running: For well and ill, the White Sox are aggressive on the bases. In the third inning, Angels starter C.J. Wilson picked Alejandro De Aza off first and he was caught stealing when he decided to try second base. But in the seventh, after singling in front of Angels center fielder Mike Trout, Chicago's Dayan Viciedo ran on a 1-1 pitch with Jeff Keppinger batting. Because Viciedo ran, Angels third baseman Luis Jimenez had no play on him at second on Keppinger's ground ball and Jimenez had to take the out at first while Viciedo ran to second. Viciedo then scored on a clean single by Connor Gillespie ... Dewayne Wise, who makes a lot of outs on the bases for the White Sox, got caught stealing on a pitchout in the ninth. For whatever reason, it was a dead giveaway to the Angels, who took the unusual step of pitching out on 1-0 to nail Wise ... In the first inning, Mike Trout stole second base for the Angels and took third on a throwing error by Chicago catcher Tyler Flowers. Trumbo ended up walking on four fastballs that missed from Chicago starter Chris Sale. But the next Angels hitter, Josh Hamilton, was helpless against the lefty Sale and he popped up to end the inning ... Mark Trumbo ran hard all the way for a double in the fourth inning for the Angels, testing the arm of White Sox center fielder De Aza, which proved to be exploitable last weekend when the Angels played in Chicago.

The fielding: Mike Trout played an awfully deep center field in the seventh against Chicago's Dayan Viciedo, enabling the batter's looper to fall in for a single. Viciedo later scored, though Trout made a strong throw from center field on Connor Gillespie's single to center that drove him in. The throw was a tiny bit up the third-base line and the Angels didn't cut it, which allowed Gillespie to take second base ... The Angels were unable to capitalize in the first inning, when White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers made a throwing error on Trout's attempt to steal second base. Trout ended up at third, but did not score.

Strategic moves: The Angels obviously can't hit White Sox starter Chris Sale, so it's hard to say what manager Mike Scioscia is supposed to do against the Chicago left hander. However, it probably would have been a good day to sit left-handed hitting Josh Hamilton, who entered the game one-for-eight against Sale and is otherwise struggling this season with a .210 batting average. Hamilton ended the night zero-for-four with two strikeouts. The problem, of course, is that with Mark Trumbo playing left field against Sale, the only other available Angels outfielder is J.B. Shuck, a left-handed hitter who has never faced Sale ... Scioscia gave the start behind the plate Friday night to switch-hitting Hank Conger over veteran Chris Iannetta. Because the obvious advantage of a switch-hitting catcher is that he can bat left-handed against right handed pitching, it shouldn't be too surprising that Conger plays a lot more against right handers. Even after playing Friday night against Sale, Conger only has 22 of his 274 career at-bats against left handers, 17 of those against lefty starters. In those 22 at-bats, Conger has a total of three singles.

What now: The Angels dropped to 15-27, still fourth place in the AL West, buffered from the basement by the Houston Astros. The Angels are 12 games behind Texas. The White Sox are on a four-game winning streak, improving to 19-21. They now share the AL Central cellar with Minnesota, each four games behind Detroit and Chicago. Saturday, the Angels will try again with right hander Joe Blanton (0-7, 6.46). Blanton has allowed 75 hits in 46 innings. The White Sox are going with left hander Hector Santiago (1-2, 2.33).

Angels hits, missing in April, showing up now

Weeks ago, the Angels couldn't hit, and they lost more than they should. Now, the Angels can't pitch, and they win more than they should. What happened to all those hits the Angels didn't get in April? They are getting them now.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

For sheer versatility in a baseball team, you can't beat the Angels. About six weeks ago, it seemed every game they were in was a pitchers duel, and the Angels lost more than they should. Now, every game they're in is a slugfest, and the Angels win more than they should.

It's not the optimum situation for the Angels, who will fight with the Baltimore Orioles three more times at the Big A this weekend before taking a breather for the All-Star break. They would like more security about their starting rotation, which used to be about 80 percent reliable and now is more like 50 percent reliable. One figures that Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson will succeed in their turns, but the rest has become trouble.

Dan Haren finally had to give in and go to the disabled list with back trouble that has plagued him all season. His effectiveness has been limited to 6-8, 4.79. Ervin Santana's effectiveness has been even more limited, to 4-9 and 5.75. The bad news there, perhaps, is that Santana's trouble doesn't have a physical explanation, so far as we know. Haren and Santana have, between them, pitched 207 innings of the 735 1/3 innings logged so far by the staff, about 28 percent of the innings. But they have combined to give up 36 homers, nearly half of the 75 home runs allowed by the entire staff.

Further into the rotation, we find Garrett Richards, a young right hander who is going to struggle from time to time. And the Angels still don't know when their No. 5 starter, Jerome Williams, is coming off the disabled list.

But the Angels still won the first of four with the Orioles Thursday night, 9-7. Finally, the Angels' offense is paying them back for all those misfires at the start of the season. They weren't as poor of a hitting club as they appeared when they were losing 3-2 all the time, and now they're not as good of a hitting team as they appear while they win 9-7.

Angels pitchers have allowed 60 runs in their last eight games. In the general run of baseball, that's an eight-game losing streak. At best, one would expect six losses in those eight games. But the Angels actually have won four of them, even though they scored only 46 runs.

Though the Angels began the year with starting pitching as their strongest component, the bats are carrying them through this most victorious stretch of the season. In the last four weeks, June 8-July 5, the Angels are batting .308. In those 25 games, of which the Angels won 17, they have flashed a well rounded offense with 33 homers and 26 steals in 31 attempts. The only downside to their offense is an average of 2.7 walks per game, which is up very slightly from the 2.4 walks per game they were averaging when they fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher in mid-May.

This surge in the Angels' offense coincides with the installation of Torii Hunter as the No. 2 hitter in Colorado on June 8. A month earlier, of course, along came Mike Trout, the closest thing we have in the game to Rickey Henderson right now, and he took over the leadoff position. Then, Albert Pujols began to hit in the No. 3 hole. And then it became a really sharp idea to slide Hunter into the No. 2 position, because he doesn't just hit the ball to right field, but he hits the ball hard to right field.

Now, with Kendrys Morales hitting cleanup and Mark Trumbo in the No. 5 position, this top half of the Angels batting order can produce with anybody. Behold the numbers for Trout through Trumbo, one through five, from June 8 until now:

Player	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip
Trout	104	29	39	6	0	5	16	10	0	24	1	0	2	0	17	0	.375	.427	.577	1.004	.442
Hunter	94	18	29	1	0	4	18	5	0	21	1	0	1	4	2	0	.309	.347	.447	.793	.357
Pujols	94	18	32	8	0	5	18	11	4	9	2	0	2	3	3	0	.340	.413	.585	.998	.329
Morales	71	6	21	5	0	1	9	3	0	18	2	0	0	2	0	0	.296	.342	.408	.751	.385
Trumbo	100	13	25	1	2	8	24	6	2	20	1	0	0	3	0	1	.250	.299	.540	.839	.236

On the question of whether replacing Hatcher with Jim Eppel has made a material difference in the club's offense, we offer no answers. However, at least coincidentally, the Angels are a much different and better offensive team in the seven weeks since the change. Take a look at this table showing the Angels' per-game averages and rate stats in games through May 15, when Hatcher was fired, along with the same numbers for the games since then:

Games	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Through May 15	33.4	3.6	8.4	1.6	0.1	0.9	3.4	2.4	0.1	6.7	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.8	0.5	0.1	.250	.301	.379	.680
Since May 15	34.6	5.1	9.9	1.7	0.2	1.2	4.8	2.9	0.2	6.3	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.8	1.0	0.3	.287	.344	.451	.795

Between hits and walks, the Angels are putting two more men on base every day, and now they're hitting an extra home run for every three they used to hit. If one or two of those extra runners is on when one of those extra homers comes up, it changes a game. Notice also that the Angels are way up in their base stealing efforts, which is getting them over, and their sacrifice flies, which is getting them in.

Of course, Hatcher and Eppel have less to do with this than Trout, Hunter, Pujols and company. If you were ever worried that the Angels would get back those hits they didn't get in April, they're getting them back now. And just when they need them.

Angels need better results in draft

The Angels have not been incredibly successful during the 21st century when it comes to scouting, drafting, signing and developing players. The media's player development experts place the Angels among the bottom half of all big league organizations when it comes to creating player value. The current scouting director, Ric Wilson, conducted his second draft for the club this week.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Angels needed a big start from a rookie Tuesday night, and Garrett Richards delivered with eight strikeouts in seven innings, helping the club to an easy 6-1 win against the Seattle Mariners at the Big A. Coming on the heels of another disappointing start by Ervin Santana, Richards illustrated, after a fashion as fresh as the headlines, the importance of the June amateur draft.

It also called attention to how little the Angels have accomplished in the draft during this century. Just for getting his first big league win Tuesday, Richards already is the third most accomplished starting pitcher the Angels have drafted and developed in this century, according to the baseball-reference.com version of WAR. He's sitting on 0.1. Without going back and counting through all the picks, it's safe to say the Angels have drafted about 25 pitchers per year this century, coming to 300 pitchers in 12 drafts entering this year. Richards has won one major league start, and he is the third best starting pitcher they produced from those drafts. As of now.

Extrapolating from the numbers explicitly on baseball-reference.com, the Angels have generated a mere 98.9 net WAR worth of big leaguers who they have drafted, signed and developed, starting with 2000. More than one-fourth of the value they have created is Jered Weaver with his 25.6 lifetime WAR. Nobody who sees the free agent contracts on the Angels would accuse them of being a homegrown operation. Seeing how little the Angels have produced, it's understandable that they would seek free agent talent.

Beginning with the draft in 2000, the Angels have scouted, drafted, signed and developed a grand total of 24 players who have come to the major leagues and made positive contributions, as measured by WAR. That is, in 12 drafts through 2011, the Angels haven't produced a 25-man roster of productive major leaguers.

In fact, during the same years, the Angels have scouted, drafted, signed and developed 22 players who have zero or negative career WAR. That is, they do replacement quality work, if that. Thus, in 12 drafts, the Angels picked and signed 46 players who made it to the major leagues, at whatever level of achievement, out of about 600 draft selections.

Don't know how any of that ranks across baseball. However, the Angels generally are regarded as a bottom-half organization in terms of the talent across their system. Baseball America ranks the Angels 19th (of 30 clubs), Baseball Prospectus ranks them 23rd, Fan Graphs ranks them 19th, John Sickels at minorleagueball.com ranks them 18th and ESPN's Keith Law ranks them 15th.

As to what the draft has produced this century, this is your All-Star team of players the Angels have drafted and signed starting in 2000: Jeff Mathis catching, Casey Kotchman at first base, Howie Kendrick at second base, Sean Rodriguez at shortstop, Dallas McPherson at third base, Mike Trout in left field, Peter Bourjos in center field, Kole Calhoun in right field, and Mike Napoli at designated hitter. The bench would be Bobby Wilson, Freddy Sandoval, Hank Conger and Tommy Murphy. Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders and Garrett Richards are your top three starting pitchers: Pick two more starters out of this group (the rest go to the bullpen): Bobby Cassevah, Jordan Walden, Michael Kohn (disabled), David Herndon, Steven Shell, Jake Woods and Matt Hensley. The closer is Bobby Jenks. Those are all the players with positive WAR.

Being fair, a couple players with zero or negative WAR are youngsters, like Andrew Romine, Trevor Bell and Will Smith. Others, like David Carpenter and Tyler Chatwood, are young big leaguers having those struggles. But Chatwood, the club's top pick in 2008, now is gone to Colorado by trade. And Bell, the top Angels pick in 2005, is well past due to be contributing in the major leagues. As fiascoes rank, though, Bell isn't quite with Brandon Wood, the Angels' 2003 top pick whose WAR is minus-four.

We're dealing here only with the draft, which isn't the only way to procure amateur talent. Latin American operations are huge. Among the Latin American players the Angels have brought through, we find Santana and Erick Aybar. Infrequently, an amateur free agent, undrafted by the majors, finds his way to The Show.

Starting with 2000, the Angels have had three scouting directors, meaning three different scouting regimes. The scouting director now is Ric Wilson, who just conducted his second draft this week. It's impossible, therefore, to assess his performance, though he clearly marks a change of direction from his predecessor, Eddie Bane (2004-2010).

Wilson picked only six high school players in 2011, none in the first ten rounds. This year, with limited picks due to the free agent signings of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, the scouting director took only five high school players. For his final draft in 2010, Bain took six high school players in the first seven selections. Only once did Bain take a four-year college player in any of his first three picks. Curiously, it was Bain's first pick, and the best he ever made, tabbing Weaver from Long Beach State with the first selection in 2004. From that point forward, Bain's drafting record has its ups and downs.

Preceding Bain, the Angels' scouting director was Donny Rowland, whose record isn't Hall of Fame material. That said, Bain probably isn't going to catch him. Among the players on the All-Star team mentioned above, Rowland drafted Napoli, Jenks, Kotchman, Mathis, McPherson, Kendrick and Saunders. He also drafted Wood. 

The Angels have won some with these players and turned them into other good players. They got 4.7 of Kotchman's lifetime 7.0 WAR before they traded him to Atlanta in 2008 for Mark Teixeira, who contributed 3.6 WAR to the Angels' stretch effort that year. When Teixeira left as a free agent, the Angels received two compensatory first round picks in 2009. Bain turned the first one into pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who later went to Arizona in the deal for Dan Haren. Bain turned the second pick into Mike Trout. So, the selection of Kotchman, the Angels' first-round pick in 2001, keeps paying back to the organization. Between Kotchman, Teixeira and Trout, that pick has produced 11 WAR for the Angels, and there's more to come.

The Angels have a similar success story to tell with their first pick in 2002, Joe Saunders. The Angels expended 6.1 of Saunders' 7.7 lifetime WAR before trading him and three other players to Arizona for Dan Haren in 2010. Since then, Saunders has produced 1.6 WAR for the Diamondbacks and Haren has generated 7.2 WAR for the Angels. So, that first-round pick also keeps producing.

Those were Rowland's success stories, the 2001 and 2002 drafts. The Angels' first five picks in 2001 (Kotchman, Mathis, McPherson, Shell and Woods) all reached the Angels and contributed positive WAR, but they only add up to 10.4. The 2002 draft also produced Kendrick, who has a 14.8 WAR. Rowland’s first draft, in 2000, and his last, in 2003, weren't so happy.

In 2000, Rowland selected Aaron Hill and David Murphy out of high school, but both decided on college and went to other clubs in later years. They have a combined WAR of 24.0. Hill, at 17.5 WAR, is the most valuable player the Angels drafted and didn't sign in this century. Murphy, at 6.5, is tied with Buster Posey for second. Bain took a crack at Posey out of high school with a 50th round pick in 2005.

The Angels also selected Jenks out of high school in the fifth round in 2000. But the Angels couldn't make it work with Jenks and they waived him to the Chicago White Sox after the 2004 season. Jenks powered the White Sox bullpen to the 2005 world championship. Jenks now has a career 7.9 WAR and 173 saves.

Then, there's Mike Napoli, taken in the 17th round with the 500th pick in 2000. Napoli made it up to the Angels, of course, and gave them 10.1 WAR before they dealt him to Toronto in the infamous Vernon Wells deal at the end of 2010. Since the trade, Napoli has added 6.2 WAR, while Wells has subtracted 1.2 from his lifetime WAR, which is down to 24.8.

The 2003 draft is painful to recount, as well. Begin with Wood, the top pick. He was Baseball America's No. 3 prospect for 2006. But he never cut down his strikeouts. Now, he's playing for Colorado Springs in the Colorado organization, turning the light mile-high air into three homers and a .337 slugging percentage in 163 at-bats.

In the 2003 third round, Rowland took a good high school shortstop, Sean Rodriguez out of Miami. On Sept. 1, 2009, the Angels, driving for a division title, dealt Rodriguez and two other players to Tampa Bay for a 25-year-old left hander who already had 55 big league wins, Scott Kazmir. Since the trade, Rodriguez has a 7.9 WAR, while Kazmir's career war has declined by 1.7 to 6.7.

Bain took the reins in 2004 and began with a bang. First pick in 2004, Weaver. By WAR, Weaver is the best Angels' draft pick of the last 15 years, since they tabbed Troy Glaus with the No. 3 overall selection in 1997. Glaus finished his career with a 35.0 WAR.

Bain dialed up another win in the 18th round in 2004, selecting Trumbo out of Villa Park High School. The Angels selected Trumbo as a pitcher. He has a 4.0 lifetime WAR as a hitter, and he keeps adding to it.

In 2005, Bain selected Bourjos, a high school outfielder from Scottsdale, AZ, in the tenth round. Bourjos has a 6.4 lifetime WAR. There are no other success stories from that draft. Walden, selected in the 12th round in 2006, has a 1.4 WAR and is the biggest success from that draft. Bain's 2007 draft is shaping up as a complete bust, and we would say the same about 2008 if the Angels hadn't dealt their top pick that year, Chatwood, to Colorado last winter for Chris Iannetta.

But Bain's 2009 draft is looking much better. It starts with Trout. Then, there's Richards, taken with a first-round sandwich pick that year out of the University of Oklahoma. The Angels sent two left handers taken in that draft -- sandwich pick Tyler Skaggs and second rounder Patrick Corbin -- to Arizona in the Haren deal. From the 2010 draft, Calhoun already has arrived. Another selection from that year, third round pitcher Donn Roach, went to San Diego recently for reliever Ernesto Frieri. While Frieri has stabilized the Angels bullpen, Roach is running a 9-1 record with a 1.98 ERA in 11 starts in the California League.

With Trout, Richards and Calhoun already called up to the big leagues this year, the Angels have about tapped what their organization can produce for them this year. The next best draft prospect, for all we know, is toiling at Inland Empire, where last year’s top Angels pick, C.J. Cron, is tied for fourth in the California League with 42 RBI.

(Editor's note: The above has been revised and corrected to show that the Angels used one of their supplementary picks for losing Teixeira to draft Tyler Skaggs, rather than Randal Grichuk.)

Angels batting surge a three-man show

Though the Angels have surged offensively to win eight straight games, the hit parade still isn't such a great show by American League standards. Indeed, the majority of the Angels offense continues to produce nearly nothing. But Albert Pujols has arrived, Kendrys Morales is back and Mark Trumbo keeps on coming.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Suddenly, we look at the Angels and see this relentless offensive team. The Angels have scored five runs per game during their eight-game winning streak, which they will try to extend Wednesday night when they go for the three-game sweep of the New York Yankees at Angel Stadium.

It's good to finally see the Angels do a little hitting and make their season exciting. But when we look inside the lineup, we still see a precarious situation. The Angels offense during the winning streak is being carried entirely by three hitters in the middle of the order -- Albert Pujols, Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo at three, four and five (In what follows, we'll call them PMT.). The rest of the batting order is worthless, or worse. A special exemption might be granted for No. 6 hitter Howie Kendrick, who hits enough singles to drive in PMT, but hasn't made the kind of contribution of which he is capable.

PMT is batting .354 (34 for 96) with 10 homers, 28 RBI and 19 runs scored during the winning streak. PMT also has chipped in three steals in four attempts, along with four doubles and a triple.

The whole rest of the team, during the winning streak, is batting .223 (41 for 184) with one homer, 11 RBI and 21 runs scored, as well as five for seven in steals with three doubles and a triple.

The way the Angels are pitching and playing defense, all it has taken to make them into a serious player is for three guys to start hitting, because, before then, no one was hitting, except, at times, Trumbo. Now, PMT is spinning so much production from the middle of the lineup that it's hard to see how little the rest of the lineup is creating.

Mike Trout's arrival has been, on the whole, a great development for the Angels. Before the Angels called Trout, they were 6-14 with a .250 on-base percentage from the lead off position. Since he arrived, the Angels are 20-11 and their lead off position is getting on base at a .368 rate. But during the winning streak, Trout is only a .200 hitter (seven for 35) with a .243 on-base percentage and a .586 OPS.

Next up, we have the No. 2 hole, where Angels manager Mike Scioscia likes to put switch-hitting third basemen who seldom drive the ball. The two men anchoring that spot -- Maicer Izturis and Alberto Callaspo -- are a combined .151 (five for 33) from there during the winning streak.

So, it's not like PMT coming up right here has started off with a lot to work with, especially considering that the seventh, eighth and ninth hitters, who precede Trout and No. 2, have been as poor as one might expect. The last three spots in the order are .232 (20 for 86) during the winning streak. The low spots have enjoyed one high moment -- a pinch-hit grand slam by Callaspo from the nine hole that gave the Angels a 5-3 win at Seattle on May 26. That blast accounted for four of the eight RBI generated by the last three spots during the winning streak.

But now we're seeing the Pujols the Angels thought they signed when they brought him here for 10 years at $240 million during the winter. Pujols has triggered this latest Angels surge like no one else, hitting .375 (12 for 32) with five homers, 10 RBI, eight runs scored, a double and a stolen base during the winning streak.

Following Pujols is Morales, the player the Angels knew they lost on that sad night two years ago when he fractured a leg during the team hop at the plate to celebrate a game-ending homer he had just hit. During the winning streak, Morales is batting .345 (10 for 29) with a homer, six RBI, five runs scored and two doubles.

Next, we get Trumbo, the man without a position who still is improving so much at the plate. During the winning streak, Trumbo is batting .343 (12 for 35) with three homers, five RBI, six runs scored, a double, a triple and two steals in three attempts.

Kendrick, following Trumbo in the order, is .296 (eight for 27) during the winning streak. But all of his hits are singles. During the winning streak, Kendrick has a .300 on-base percentage, because he has one walk, and a .296 slugging percentage, because he has no extra-base hits. And he still has eight RBI in the eight games because always, it seems, someone from the PMT cluster is on base before him to score on a single.

So, the Angels are better offensively, but they're not up there with the powerhouses, by any means. It's nice to average five runs per game during a winning streak, but Texas and Boston are ahead of that over the whole season, with Texas at 5.66 runs per game and Boston at 5.29. The Angels OPS during the winning streak is .741. But five American League teams are ahead of that over the entire season, and .741 isn't a whole lot better than the league-wide OPS of .729.

During the eight-game winning streak, whatever the Angels are doing is working. But they still have a lot of work to do through the majority of their order to become the kind of offensive team so many people expected to see during the spring.

Angels unlikely win sets scene for more

On a night when the Angels certainly needed their ace pitcher, Jered Weaver's back gave out after throwing 12 pitches to the New York Yankees. But there was something a little different about the Angels Monday night at the Big A. It's called hitting. The Angels finally did a bit of it, and they suddenly looked like a different team.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in LA

At the Big A Monday night, the first inning alone contained enough twists and turns for an entire baseball game. But they played the other eight innings, anyway, and the game was never any worse for it.

The Angels blew down so many doors with their 9-8 win against the New York Yankees that they almost don't look like the same team in its wake. For the moment, at least, they aren't a losing team, climbing to 25-25 with their seventh straight win.

Beating the Yankees in a slugfest is never a small achievement. Winning the slugfest after joining it reluctantly is even more to be esteemed. But that's what the Angels were up against when Jered Weaver's back gave out just 12 pitches into his much anticipated start against the Yankees Monday night. Pitching at Angel Stadium for the first time since no-hitting the Minnesota Twins on May 2, Weaver lasted only three hitters against the Yankees and left the field with audible signs of outrage.

Weaver's departure looked too much like the wrong kind of ding at the wrong time for a club that was just finding traction. Weaver, being the guy you trust to shut down the best offenses, had to be wanting this one after a difficult outing at Texas on May 13. Now, he goes down after not getting an out in the very first of three games against the Yankees, who are already going to tax your pitching staff. The Angels were down, 3-0, before they even went to bat.

But then we saw true fight in the Angels, and the cloud passed over the immediate situation while they scored four runs in their half of the first inning to take the lead. Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Kendrys Morales, Mark Trumbo are all guys who you think are going to hit, and they all hit in the rally. Quite refreshing for a team that scored a total of five runs in three straight losses about a week earlier.

Whether because they were momentarily called to excellence or because they were facing Yankee starter Phil Hughes, the Angels made contact like we haven't seen this year. Even as the Yankees hacked away at the Angels bullpen, inning by inning, the Angels remained in strong position all night because of their hitting. So, the Angels won one against a contender by hitting. It almost hadn't seemed possible.

But it was always possible, largely because of one guy who kept producing for the Angels through the bad times, the same player the Angels sort of nudged aside when they signed Pujols. A lot of clubs would have looked at Mark Trumbo at the end of last year and said, "Hey, we have a 25-year-old right-handed hitting first baseman who just hit 29 bombs his first year in the big leagues. Maybe we have that part of the equation solved and we can address some other areas of need on our ball club." But the Angels made the entertainment decision and signed Pujols with hopes for a marketing payback.

Not saying at all that the signing Pujols is a poor baseball decision. Anyone with the bucks would have made it, and we're seeing lately the difference it makes when Pujols trades those 385-foot fly balls for 120-foot line drives. He starts receiving 420-foot home runs as a kickback. However, the Angels were not compelled by their baseball circumstances to sign Pujols, and the signing did, in fact, present the Angels with the new problem of fitting Trumbo's bat into the lineup.

The fairy tale wish had it that Trumbo would graduate after six weeks at Geppetto's workshop in Tempe, AZ, as a passable big league third baseman. After Trumbo made three errors at third during the first two games of the season, the Angels backed off. Meanwhile, the tepid state of the Angels offense made it urgent to put Trumbo in the lineup. Trumbo has taken starts at five positions -- third base, first base, designated hitter, left field and right field. With Torii Hunter coming back now from his family leave, Angels manager Mike Scioscia told radio announcer Terry Smith the other day that we can expect to see a lot of Trumbo in left field, with Trout in center and Hunter in right.

All night Monday, when the Angels needed star hitting, one of the least expensive players on their roster provided it. In the first inning, Trumbo hit a ground-rule double to drive in a run. In the third, he led off with a triple and scored on Kendrick's sacrifice fly.

And leading off the bottom of the ninth, of course, we saw what happened. Yankee reliever Cory Wade threw a 1-1 changeup that drifted in to Trumbo, who crushed it into the left field seats to end the game as a 9-8 Angels victory.

It was a win on a night when winning seemed momentous and impossible for the Angels. Now, they get to go out for another one.

The Yankees are coming back Tuesday night with 40-year-old left hander Andy Pettitte, who is making his fourth start since taking a year of retirement. Pettitte (2-1, 2.53) has whiffed 17 batters in his last 15 innings. The Angels, who can pitch with anyone in the American League, will counter with Dan Haren (2-5, 3.76). The road has not been smooth this year for Haren, but he might have gotten well with a 14-strikeout performance last Thursday in Seattle.

A win for the Angels Tuesday night would give them a winning record for the first time this season. And it would place them within one game of the Yankees for the league's final playoff spot with barely more than 110 games remaining for each team.