Nationals start strong in First Division

The Washington Nationals play only 15 games this season in the First Division, so they need to make all of them count. Last week, they opened with a three-game sweep on the road against the San Francisco Giants. Next week, they're in Los Angeles to face the Dodgers, who are in the relegation zone.

Ryan Zimmerman led the way offensively for the Washington Nationals this week against the San Francisco Giants (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

In eight years of playing out the promotion/relegation scheme across baseball, it's never been the case that any team played every other team in its division. By contrast, every team plays every other team every year in basketball, hockey and soccer.

Unlike the other sports in which we operate ordinal divisions with promotion and relegation (soccer style, one might say) baseball draws up huge scheduling imbalances that require us to draw up special rules.

The results lead to questions in baseball about what kind of performance should count as good enough to win a division or be promoted, and what should count as a poor enough performance to guarantee relegation.

From the start, it has been stipulated that any team that wins a division or is promoted in the three eight-team divisions (First, Second and Third) must have played against at least three other teams in the division and must have won at least 10 games. For a team to be demoted from these divisions, a team must have played at least three of the other teams and lost at least 10 games. It also was established that two teams will be promoted from each of these divisions (except the First) and two will be demoted from these divisions every year.

The rules were introduced to keep light schedules from unduly influencing promotion and relegation. They have worked well. There are a couple of other rules, which don't need to be addressed here. And the Fourth Division, which has only six teams, involves other rules still.

This comes up because the Washington Nationals are on the docket for only 15 games in the First Division this year. It is the lightest schedule any team has ever had in the First, Second or Third Divisions.

The schedule is light for the Nationals because there are only three National League teams in the First Division (the others are the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants). Further, the Nationals have only one interleague opponent in the First Division, which is the Texas Rangers.

It all means that the Nationals must win 10 of their 15 games to even be eligible for the First Division championship, if they don't make the playoffs. The trade-off is that the Nats can't be demoted without losing at least 10 games. Keep in mind, though, that the playoffs also count in the baseball ordinals. That's one of the special rules. Last season, they were decisive.

One can see now why the moment is of some importance, for the Nationals finally played in the First Division this week, sweeping three in San Francisco against the Giants. In the next 10 days, the Nats will play six more First Division games. They will play three in Los Angeles against the Dodgers June 5-7 and three at home against the Rangers June 9-11.

By sweeping the Giants in a series made infamous by the Memorial Day brawl centered on Bryce Harper and Hunter Strickland, the Nationals have made all of those games crucial to the First Division race. 

Harper drew the headlines after retaliating against Strickland, who threw at the National star's hip in their first meeting since Harper hit two home runs off him in the 2014 playoffs. But the star for the Nationals was Ryan Zimmerman, who went five-for-12 (.417) with two homers and five RBI in the three games.

Looking here at the standings, one sees the Nationals listed on top at 3-0 with a 1.000 winning percentage, ahead of the Red Sox at 9-4 and .692, even though the Red Sox are a game ahead of the Nationals. Again, we note the imbalance. Most often, the percentage column and the games behind column will match, but not always. If one team wins the percentage column and a different team wins the games column, we declare a split championship. Fair enough.

There is more to note in the First Division standings. Down there on the very bottom are the Texas Rangers, already 2-10. The Rangers appear doomed for demotion. But they have 17 games left in the First Division, so there's still time for them to dig their way out of relegation.

For that to happen, though, the Rangers will need two other teams to collapse. Joining the Rangers in the relegation zone at the moment are the Dodgers at 4-6, all against the Giants. Next week's series with Washington visiting Dodger Stadium looms large at the top and the bottom of the First Division standings.

The Second Division is mostly the way we last found it, with the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks holding the promotional positions. The relegation zone is crowded, with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals all within one-half game of each other. The Pirates and Mets meet this weekend in a key series.

Likewise, the Third Division looks about the same. The Houston Astros have all but written their ticket for promotion. The Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox are scheduled lightly in this division, 23 games for each club, so making the 10-win threshold with a good enough percentage for promotion will challenge each club.

The interesting club here is the Angels, who still are a .500 team across their big league schedule despite numerous injuries. Mike Trout went on the disabled list on May 31 for a thumb surgery.

The good news for the Angels is that they have only six Third Division games in June and July, but 26 such games from Aug. 1 through the end of the season. Trout should be back by Aug. 1. The Angels also hope for the returns of pitchers Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs by then. 

If the Angels can get a healthy club working for the last two months of the season, they're looking at an excellent chance for promotion back to the Second Division. 

The Minnesota Twins took over first place in the Fourth Division last week by going into Baltimore and sweeping three games from the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins beat Baltimore every which way. First, on May 22, the Twins thumped Baltimore, 14-7, with homers by Miguel Sano and Max Kepler. The next day, Ervin Santana pitched a complete-game shutout for a 2-0 win. On the third day, the Twins took a 4-0 lead early and held on for a 4-3 victory.

The sweep doesn't finish Baltimore off, by any means, but it's merely another episode in their snake-bitten stay in the Fourth Division, to which they were banished for their fold in the 2014 American League championship series.

The Orioles began this history in the Fourth Division in 2010 and, despite their success under the field management of Buck Showalter, they have never been promoted past the Third Division.

After Dipoto leaves, Angels nab Aaron, Killebrew

The Angels broke out their bats during the July 4 weekend in Arlington, scoring 33 runs in a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers. We won't say for sure that the Angels players were glad to see general manager Jerry Dipoto go, but we're pretty sure they weren't upset to see him leave.

Angels slugger Albert Pujols reportedly had words with general manager Jerry Dipoto shortly before the latter resigned (Marianne O'Leary [UC International crop]/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

It's easy to say the wheels are coming off the Angels' season now that general manager Jerry Dipoto has left the building after a much-reported dust-up with the fellows in baseball uniforms. It's much harder to say the wheels are staying on.

We prefer to do things the hard way, so we're going in that direction. An air clearing like this isn't the worst that can happen with a baseball club that's really been flat-lining all season, just winning a couple and then losing a couple, ad nauseum, all the way from the start of April until now.

Not a bad idea to roll a head or two under the circumstances, and Dipoto ended up rolling his own.

In a short run of games since Dipoto gave way on July 1, the Angels have performed well, demolishing the Texas Rangers three straight in Arlington during the July 4 weekend by a combined score of 33-8.

Incidentally, the three-game sweep gave the Angels possession of the Harmon Killebrew Award
and the Henry Aaron Award.

It's easy to say Dipoto's departure must have made the Angels bats happy, at least immediately. How this plays out in the long term is anyone's guess, though it's hard by now to believe the players were thrilled with their former general manager.

One can imagine how it went over with the players when the guy in the polo shirt – the guy who didn't provide a lead-off hitter, or a clean-up hitter, or even a No. 6 hitter, the guy who traded away the old second baseman and didn't replace him, the guy who worked harder at poor-mouthing Josh Hamilton than at replacing him – when that guy went into the clubhouse and told players that the real problem was that the coaches weren't giving them good enough information. One can imagine.

But we don't have to imagine, because the reports tell us that what happened is what we would imagine. At least we know now who's the boss, and it isn't Mike Scioscia, the 15-year manager who's still under contract through 2018 at $6 million per year. Scioscia won the power struggle with Dipoto when Hall-of-Fame-bound first baseman Albert Pujols got his back. When the GM enters the clubhouse to run a meeting with the players and the most expensive and accomplished player on the team basically tells him to do his own job better, it's over.

So, the boss is Pujols, and everyone kind of knew that the moment he signed that 10-year deal for $240 million before the 2012 season. Angels owner Arte Moreno has much more invested in Pujols than in Scioscia or Dipoto. Now Pujols leads the American League with 25 home runs, his credibility is high and the general manager went across him. Cross Scioscia? Part of the general manager's job. Cross Pujols? Probably not the general manager's job.

Compare the situation with what happened last year in Oakland. Reports say a huge conflict arose between their general manager, Billy Beane, and their best player, Josh Donaldson, with manager Bob Melvin in the middle. After the season, Beane traded Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays. Beane has said the conflict did not motivate the trade, and it doesn't even matter. The Athletics will never be so invested in a player that Beane can't trade him for any reason he wants.

By the reports, Dipoto was dissatisfied at how basic scouting information was filtering through the coaching staff to the players. By the reports, Pujols told Dipoto that the roster this year just isn't as good as the roster last year.

We can't judge if Dipoto was right, but we definitely can judge that Pujols was right. The most obvious problem is a dreadful lack of depth in the batting order. When your lineup has Pujols and Mike Trout, but you still have one of the worst offensive teams in the Major Leagues, that's almost an achievement. Even after their hitting explosion in Texas, the Rangers still are 11th of 15 American League teams at 4.10 runs per game.

One doesn't have to be a player to see that the front office has failed his team. Time will tell, for example, if young left-hander Andrew Heaney is ultimately a good return for popular and productive second baseman Howie Kendrick. So far, though, time is saying the Angels are significantly downgraded at second base.

In so many ways, the Angels front office performed terribly throughout the Josh Hamilton saga. When you commit $125 million to a known and admitted drug addict, a constructive approach to a relapse has to be part of the equation. But the Angels didn't see it that way, because they never thought they were committed to $125 million. They thought Hamilton's drug problem would get him suspended without pay, the way performing enhancing drugs (PEDs) are, and that they could weasel out of his contract if he relapsed. When they learned otherwise, they were petulant and indignant.

We don't suppose for one second that Moreno's chaotic leadership isn't behind all of this, but Dipoto got in front of the microphones and played the heavy, and that couldn't have gone over well with players who are sympathetic to Hamilton. The Angels management reacted to Hamilton's problems with outrage, as if a drug addict's relapse somehow defied the moral and physical laws of the universe.

The Angels already knew Hamilton would miss the start of the season with shoulder trouble, even before we all learned of his relapse. Yet, they did next to nothing – they signed Matt Joyce – to account for Hamilton's absence in left field and the middle of the batting order. The problem isn't that the Angels don't have Hamilton, who OPS-plussed 114 last season. They can replace that with someone about as good as Juan Rivera used to be. The problem is that they don't have anybody.

So, the Angels figured all along that they would be rid of Hamilton's contract with a relapse, they rooted openly for him to be suspended because of the relapse, when they didn't get their way they sent Hamilton back to the Rangers for almost nothing and, all this time, they didn't make a serious bid to replace him. And they have a big whole in their lineup now because of it.

One day a couple of weeks ago, the general manager entered the players quarters and told them he was going around the field manager to fix the club's mediocre performance. If you're a player on that team, maybe the general manager can go to hell. The Angels happen to have a player who can tell him that.

We're not saying Pujols told Dipoto where to go. All we know is that Dipoto went somewhere.

Angels order mostly weak through June

Last season, the Angels won 98 games and led the American League with 4.77 runs per game. This season, they averaged only 4.10 runs per game through June before general manager Jerry Dipoto resigned. Here's a look at the Angels' batting order, spot through spot, through June.

Kole Calhoun has performed quite well for the Angels this year leading off, and not as well batting clean-up (Dave Sizer [UC International crop]/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Let's go through the Angels' batting order, using numbers from baseball-reference.com to illustrate how easy it must be for opposing pitchers to work this lineup. All numbers account for games through July 1, the day Jerry Dipoto stepped down as general manager and was replaced by Bill Stoneman.

The bottom-line takeaway is this: In two-thirds of the positions in the batting order, the Angels are in the bottom two-thirds of production across the Major Leagues, based on OPS. Any place where Mike Trout or Albert Pujols bat, the Angels will be strong, Johnny Giavotella gave them more in the No. 9 spot than most clubs are getting, and though Kole Calhoun might not be your ideal leadoff hitter, he's not bad there, either.

But the offensive talent in the midsection of this order is so thin that manager Mike Scioscia has tried papering it over by mixing in Calhoun, which hasn't worked out, then replacing Calhoun at the top with Giovatella, and that hasn't worked, either.

Anybody watching this team knows the Angels would be considerably improved if they can find someone to stick in left field who can catch the ball and produce something offensively. He doesn't have to be a multi-dimensional threat offensively, but he has to do something – either get on base from the top of the order or drive the ball from the middle. Ideally, he's someone who enables you to put the best hitters, Trout and Pujols at No. 2 and No. 3.

Remember when guys like Juan Pierre and Kenny Lofton were floating the game around looking for work? Someone like that would be just about right. Through the July 4 weekend, Marlon Byrd is batting .245 (108 OPS-plus) with 14 homers for the Cincinnati Reds. He might be available and he probably would help. The Angels also have reportedly been in trade talks with the Milwaukee Brewers for Gerardo Parra, who also would be an upgrade. The Angels don't need a star, but they do need a threat.

As it happens, left field isn't as strong of an offensive position across the game as it has been in other years. As of July 1, left fielders were OPSing .715, behind first base (.791), right field (.759), designated hitter (.758), third base (.749) and center field (.725). Typically, left fielders will produce a little more than center fielders offensively. Last season, for example, left field OPSed .724, behind first basemen (.757), DHs (.736) and right fielders (.735), but ahead of center fielders (.719) and third basemen (.715). It's just slightly down year so far for left fielders.

Anyway, here's how the Angels were performing in all of the positions in the batting order, one through nine, compared with the other 29 Major League clubs through July 1.

Leading off, the Angels have a .619 OPS, 29th out of 30 Major League teams. The most frequent lead-off hitters have been Erick Aybar (35 games) and Cole Kalhoun (28 games). Calhoun began the season as the lead-off hitter, and actually was pretty good in the batter's box – .306 batting average with an .806 OPS. But he doesn't exactly fly around the bases and Scioscia can't put the game in motion the way he'd like with Calhoun batting in front of Trout and Pujols. With those two hitting behind him, Calhoun still scored only 14 runs in 28 games leading off.

Additionally, the Angels needed support down the order, and a line-drive machine like Calhoun stands to be useful that way. Last year, the Angels most frequently had Hamilton batting fourth, Howie Kendrick fifth, Aybar sixth and David Freese seventh. This year's middle order, as we shall see, is not nearly so strong.

By mid-May, Scioscia dropped Calhoun down the order – to fourth through mid-June and to second from mid-June to now – moving Aybar to the top. Aybar's energy is one of this team's most valuable qualities, and he has been a decent lead-off hitter at times during his career. But he's batting only .206 from the top spot this season. Historically, Aybar is better the more you can drop him down the order. Aybar is back now to batting fifth or sixth and the most frequent lead-off hitter for the last two weeks is Giavotella, who is batting .196 with nine hits and three walks in 51 plate appearances from the top spot.

At No. 2, the Angels are fourth across the big leagues with an .853 OPS because the guy there has mostly been Trout. Nothing more needs to be said about him. In the last couple weeks, though, the Angels have dropped Trout from second to third and Pujols from third to fourth, placing Calhoun in the two hole. Calhoun has struggled there, batting .200 (12 for 60) as the No. 2 hitter.

At No. 3, again, the Angels are riding high – third across the game with a .923 OPS, behind only the Arizona Diamondbacks (Paul Goldschmidt) and the Detroit Tigers (Miguel Cabrera). The spot has belonged to Pujols, then Trout. No problem.

At the clean-up spot, we start seeing big problems. The Angels have a .686 OPS from their clean-up hitters, 27th across the Major Leagues. By the way, that's with Pujols kicking in a 1.001 OPS in 15 games from that spot, which has been his alone since June 15. Pujols is, however, batting only .223 (11 for 50) cleaning up, though with six homers. Before Pujols, it was Calhoun, who OPSed .689 as the cleanup hitter. Before Calhoun, it was even worse – a combination of Freese (clean-up OPS .691) and Matt Joyce (clean-up OPS .344).

From here, it only gets little better, and maybe a little worse. At No. 5, the Angels OPS .698, 23rd in the Major Leagues. Freese has the most time there, OPSing .703 in 191 plate appearances batting fifth. But Aybar has the better performance, batting .342 with an .820 OPS in 77 plate appearances as the No. 5 batter. All others: .207 batting average (11 for 53) no homers, three RBI.

At No. 6, the Angels OPS .651, 23rd in the Major Leagues. They actually have a couple of players who have succeeded a little there. Joyce is hitting only .227 in 106 plate appearances from the six hole, but he has walked 15 times, so he has a .352 on-base percentage. Freese has been there for the last couple of days and has six hits in 19 at-bats hitting sixth this season. The Angels have run a dozen other guys to the six hole this year. Between them, they have 195 plate appearances with 41 hits, 14 walks, no homers and 13 RBI.

At No. 7, the Angels have a .615 OPS, 24th out of 30 Major League clubs. It has been a good spot for the catchers. Chris Iannetta has really declined at the plate this year, batting .184 with a .558 OPS. In the seven hole, though, he has a .703 OPS in 71 plate appearances. And the new back-up catcher, Carlos Perez, is OPSing .778 in 49 plate appearances batting seventh (Overall, Perez is OPSing .583 in 109 plate appearances). Iannetta and Perez account for about 40 percent of 304 plate appearances for the Angels batting seventh. Everyone else with any kind of trial there has failed miserably.

At No. 8, the Angels OPS .474, 29th of 30 Major League clubs. Only the Chicago Cubs (.358) are worse, and that's because their manager, Joe Maddon, likes to bat his pitcher eighth. Kyle Kubitza (.769 OPS in the position) and Efren Navarro (.878) both have performed well there, but in a combined 30 plate appearances. Of the players with 10 games or more, Perez leads the way at .511.

The Angels have good news at No. 9, where their .608 OPS is seventh in the Major Leagues. Giavotella was batting .311 with a .789 OPS from the bottom position, but he was moved to the top of the order and the Angels have no one else who has distinguished himself as the ninth hitter. Naturally, the top 14 teams are American League teams. The Seattle Mariners, 17th at .509, are the only AL team in the bottom half of the Major Leagues, trailing the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.

Center League: Royals, Cardinals fight for lead

The St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals are meeting this weekend in Kansas City for the Center League lead. The Royals won the opener Friday night, 5-0, behind two homers by designated hitter Kendrys Morales.

Kansas City Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain enters Saturday's games with a 2.8 WAR, according to baseball-reference.com, second only to the Angels' Mike Trout among American League position players (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The key series of the weekend is in the Central League, where the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals are meeting for the lead.

It happens that the Royals have the best record in the American League (27-14) and the Cardinals have the best record in the National League (27-15), but it's the Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers with a half-game lead on the Royals in the Central League, even after the Royals carried a 5-0 win out of Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City Friday night.

The Royals have advanced from mere feel-good story to real going concern in a very short time. One can tell they are real because they can replace real talent and keep winning.

During the offseason, they lose their ace right-hander, James Shields, the player who, more than any other, lurched them towards credibility. Shields went to the San Diego Padres as a free agent. Instead, now, the Royals have Chris Young, who now has 69 career victories as he approaches his 35th birthday on May 25. Young threw six innings of goose eggs at the Cardinals Friday night, allowing six hits. He's 4-0 now with a 0.78 ERA.

During the offseason, the Royals lost their long-time designated hitter, Billy Butler, to free agency.  In his place, the Royals signed Kendrys Morales, who, being a switch-hitter with power, pretty obviously trumps Butler, who signed with the Oakland Athletics.  Morales accounted for all of Kansas City's scoring Friday with a three-run homer in the first inning and a two-run homer in the third.

The centerpiece for the Royals remains, of course, that core of young, veteran talent. It would be hard to pick just one, but, if you had to, it would probably be the center fielder, Lorenzo Cain. As of Saturday morning, Cain was second to Mike Trout of the Angels in WAR (2.7) among American Leaguers who aren't pitchers, according to baseball-reference.com. Friday night, Cain hit himself onto base twice so he could score on Morales homers.

As of Saturday morning in the Central League, the Cardinals are 20-11, the Tigers are 23-14 and the Royals are 18-10. Now, 30 years after the Royals and Cardinals met in the World Series, they are meeting on the weekend before Memorial Day. Perhaps they will meet again in October.

Torrid Trout could succeed (finally) in MVP bid

No one has questioned Mike Trout's greatness in his first two years with the Angels, but that never got him an MVP award. This season, the way he's going right now, there might not be any stopping him. The Angels are winning, and Trout is a key reason.

Mike Trout robs J.J. Hardy of a home run in Baltimore in 2012 (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Arguments have raged for the last couple of years as to whether Mike Trout was or was not the best baseball player in the world. The arguments against him boiled down to this: Miguel Cabrera's Detroit Tigers were one of the best teams in the world, while Trout's Angels were not.

Sensible enough. There's only one true value in sports. Winning. Thus, good players on winning teams are more valuable than good players on losing teams.

In 2014, though, the Angels are a winning club, 36-28, contending closely in the American League West and holding the league's top wild card position. Trout is a great player building another great season. Might be too early to say so, but this could be Trout's year.

Cabrera's batting numbers merited the American League triple crown in 2012 and those numbers were, on the whole, even better in 2013, though not good enough for the triple crown in the later case. In each case, though, the Tigers won their division.

Trout's batting numbers weren't as good in either case, but he brought so much more to the table as a defender and base runner that he truly was at least as good overall. Unfortunately, for Trout, the fortunes of his club took him out of the running for serious MVP consideration. Cabrera won it both times.

Famously, Trout still was farming in Salt Lake when the Angels went off to their terrible start in 2012, coming up a month into the season and still making enough of a mark to win Rookie of the Year. In large part because of Trout, the Angels rallied to the fringe of the AL wild card race and Trout entered the MVP conversation. Last season, the Angels started even worse and never recovered, dooming Trout's MVP candidacy.

The last month has seen a re-birth of the Angels as a contender and made Trout, once more, a front runner for the league's MVP award. Through games of June 10, Trout batted .294, and he’s rising quickly. His power numbers of 12 homers and 45 RBIs put him on schedule to surpass his previous highs of 30 and 97. He's the everyday center fielder, where he is a plus performer.

What's more, Trout is becoming a game breaker, not merely a great player. On May 15, hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth against the Tampa Bay Rays, giving the Angels a 6-5 win. It was Trout's first walk-off RBI of any kind in the big leagues. On June 6, Trout hit a grand slam with the Angels down, 5-1, in the bottom of the eighth. It came against White Sox left-hander Chris Sale, who, up to that moment, had allowed only two runs in 31 innings against the Angels during his career. The Angels ended up beating the Chicago White Sox, 6-5.

And Trout is hot. Through June 10, Trout batted .386 (22-for-57) in his last 16 games, raising his average from .264 to .294. He hit in 17 of his last 18 games, reached base in 29 of his last 30 games and drove in 24 runs in his last 25 games.

All that production is coming with plate discipline. For the season, Trout has 68 strikeouts and 35 walks, so he stands to strike out 160 times, which would be a career high, and he's only walking about half as much. But he has 14 walks and 16 strikeouts in his last 20 games. He's finding it.

When we look in the numbers at why the Angels are 20-11 starting with May 9, it's clearly the pitching, especially the starters. The Angels' staff is putting up a 3.54 ERA during that run, compared with an ERA of 3.96 across the AL this season. The Angels this year are second in the AL in starter ERA (3.61) and their 27 wins by starting pitchers also is second. Opponents are batting .231 against the Angels, which is another second-best mark across the league.

Offensively, the Angels have been nothing special during their 20-11 surge. Their long slash during that period is .259/.328/.405/.733. The AL's long slash for the season is .253/.321/.395/.715.

Thus, the Angels are just a tinge better than the average AL offense during this hottest period of their last three seasons. And where would they be without Trout? During that period, Trout is .303/.393/.586/.979. Trout has scored or driven in 35 of the club's 134 runs during that period, accounting for 26 percent of the club's offense (16 runs and 25 RBI, minus six homers).

Unlike the last two seasons, the Angels are an interesting, exciting and successful club in 2014. They've rallied to within 2 1/2 games of the Oakland Athletics in the AL West.

This club has many success stories. Albert Pujols still isn't nearly the player he used to be, but he leads the club with 15 homers and he's running well. Erick Aybar is once more a dynamic player. Colin Cowgill is a pleasant surprise, as the Angels are 34-21 when he plays and 2-7 when he doesn't. Garrett Richards has become a force in the starting rotation, allowing only one earned run in his last two starts (15 innings) to feed his total output of 6-2 with a 3.09 ERA.

But Trout is in the middle of the whole operation. And the way he's going right now, he's going to finally win that MVP award, so long as the Angels keep winning with him.

The Angels according to WAR

The statistical confection known as Wins Above Replacement (WAR) has become something of a new religion among a certain strain of baseball fans. As such, it requires a leap of faith, which some of us aren't quite willing to take. Here's what WAR says about the Angels in 2013.

According to WAR, Angels pitchers are considerably better than they were last season, and Scott Downs, in particular, is about five times as good (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Angels have become a dangerous team since this season's terrible start, which was even worse than last year's terrible start. It remains that, at 43-45, they are well behind the pace of last year's outfit, which finished 89-73. At the rate that the Angels have won through their first 88 games, they would finish 79-83.

Again, though, the Angels started this year 15-27. Since then, they are 28-18. If they can keep playing at that 28-18 pace (a .609 percentage), they would finish 88-74, which gets them very close to the present pace for the Tampa Bay Rays, who are 50-40 and positioned for the second wild card at 90-72.

The question before us is this: Considering that the Angels, taking the first 88 games in total, are paced to finish ten games worse than they finished last year, what is that difference? How, specifically, are the Angels ten games behind last year's rate of victory?

Like many other commentators, we're intrigued by Wins Above Replacement (WAR) as a way to measure specific player contributions to winning games. Unlike many of those same commentators, who talk as though WAR should be the last word on important questions like a player's worthiness for the Hall of Fame or a Most Valuable Player award, we're not sold on WAR. We're still kicking the tires and checking under the hood.

A check under the hood involves a critique of the methodology, a critical look at the assumptions involved in working out the formula for determining WAR. Tire kicking involves putting certain questions to WAR and seeing how it answers. What follows is an exercise in tire kicking.

Baseball-reference.com (insert deep bow here) bases WAR on the assumption that a team composed entirely of "replacement" players, players of the "4A" type who are easily available to every team, would win 48 games in a 162-game major league season. Thus, a team that wins 90 games in a season would have 42 games of WAR value -- the 48 games that a team full of replacements would win, plus 42 "wins above replacement."

One legitimate criticism of WAR is that it misses by a little. One of WAR's virtues is that it doesn't miss by much. But it does miss by enough to be questionable. For example, as the Angels won 89 games last year, we would expect their WAR to total 41. Instead, by the Baseball-reference.com version of WAR, it totaled 46.3. If the Angels had won at the rate that WAR would predict, they would have finished with 94 wins, which would have put them into the playoffs. In the world according to WAR, the Oakland Athletics would have won 95 instead 94, the Texas Rangers would have won the same 93 and the Baltimore Orioles would have won 87 instead of 93. So, the Angels would have been in and the Orioles would have been out.

That's a pretty different world. So, WAR raises at least as many questions about itself as it answers about player value, and that should be kept in mind as we put it to work. It's a long way from being perfected.

It's also a lot of fun. So, back to the fun. Let's look at the Angels.

So far in 2013, Angels pitchers have produced 6.6 WAR, which works out to 12.2 WAR over 162 games. As it happens, Angels pitchers produced 4.8 WAR for all of last season. If WAR is to be believed, then Angels pitchers actually are better this year than last year, even though they rank 11th in American League ERA this year (4.23) and they ranked eighth last year (4.02).

At the end of last season, the Angels let go of Dan Haren (-0.4 WAR in 2012) and Ervin Santana (-1.3) and, essentially, replaced them with Jason Vargas and Joe Blanton. Vargas, with a 1.9 WAR so far this year, projects out to about 3.7 WAR over a full season, though we know we're not getting that because he'll miss about six weeks with a blood clot. Blanton has a -0.4 WAR, which works out to about -0.8 over the full season. Between Vargas and Blanton, the Angels would realize about 3.0 WAR over the full season, an improvement of 4.7 WAR over the combination of Haren and Santana in 2012.

C.J. Wilson finished with 0.7 WAR last year and now has 1.3 WAR in 2013, which would take him to about 2.5 over the full season. That's an upgrade of 1.8 WAR. Jered Weaver last year had 4.0 WAR and, so far this year, has 1.4 WAR, which would get him to about 2.8 over the full season. But Weaver is the reverse side of Vargas in that the former already has been injured and we might expect him to outpace the WAR he has established so far. The way Weaver is going lately, he might match last year's 4.0.

Last year, the Angels brought in Zach Greinke as a short timer and he gave them 1.4 WAR. He's pitching across town now and the Angels don't have an obvious replacement. However, Jerome Williams is good enough for WAR purposes. Last season, Williams totaled -0.2 WAR. This year, so far, he is 0.6, which rates out to about 1.2. That's an improvement of 1.4, which was precisely Greinke's contribution last season.

Ernesto Frieri last year totaled 1.4 WAR and he has 0.9 WAR so far this year, so he would come in around 1.8 for a small increase. But Scott Downs is showing a big increase, up from 0.4 WAR last year to 1.2 so far this season. He would pace out to about 2.4 WAR this year, a full two games better for a situational left-handed reliever. Even Garrett Richards works out better this season. Last year, he finished with -1.0 WAR and this year he projects to about -0.2 WAR.

Taking the next five Angels pitchers by appearances in 2013, we find Michael Kohn (0.7 so far), Kevin Jepsen (-0.0), Dane De La Rosa (0.5), Robert Coello (0.0) and Sean Burnett (0.6). They total 1.8, which would bring them in around 3.5. Compare them with the Angels next five pitchers from 2012 in appearances: Jason Isringhausen (0.1 in 2012), Jepsen (0.4), Jordan Walden (0.3), LaTroy Hawkins (0.0) and Hisanori Takahashi (-0.3). They total 0.5. So, the Angels, considering the solid back of their staff, are about 3.0 WAR better than last year.

Assuming that the discrepancies involving Weaver and Vargas will come out in the wash, the body of pitchers so far considered would come in right about 12 WAR better than last year. As to the remaining pitchers from each year, the guys who come and go, the Angels are about two WAR worse in 2013.

Position play, WAR tells us, is where the Angels really suffer this year in comparison with 2012. Defensively, in particular, WAR tells us exactly what the eye tells us. The Angels are ghastly this year. In 2012, they totaled 4.6 defensive WAR. In 2013, they are -4.7 WAR, which comes to about -9.0 over the full season. Perhaps WAR is telling us something about the relationship between pitching and defense, because the common measures tell us that the Angels pitching is worse this year, while WAR tells us that the pitching actually is better and it's the defense that's worse.

Offensively, WAR tells us that the Angels are a little worse than last year. Their offensive WAR last year was 36.7 and their offensive WAR so far this year is 17.1, which paces out to about 33. The less mysterious measurements tell us that that the Angels are more than a little worse offensively this year. The Angels are down from third in the league to seventh in runs, down from third to fifth in OPS and their OPS-plus is down from 116 to 111.

The big differences are found in individual position players, where we see enormous declines in WAR. That 12-game improvement in WAR among the pitchers is much more than offset by a projected decline of about 20 WAR among the position players.

Erick Aybar last year was 4.3 WAR and he's 0.2 WAR so far in 2013, so he paces out to a four-game WAR drop. Alberto Callaspo has dropped from 3.5 WAR to 0.0 WAR, so his decline is that large. By letting go of Torii Hunter, who had a 5.8 WAR last year, and replacing him with Josh Hamilton, who is 0.2 this year, the Angels figure to be another five WAR in the red. Albert Pujols did 5.0 WAR last year and he's 0.8 so far in 2013, a drop of about 3.5 over the full season. Mike Trout has followed last year's incredible 10.9 WAR with 3.9 so far this year. He paces out to about 7.7 WAR in 2013, another drop of three games. Were these players to maintain their WAR levels, they would end up being about 20 WAR worse in 2013 than 2012.

All of that is somewhat offset by improvements from other players. Howie Kendrick, who finished last year with 3.1 WAR, already has 2.8 in 2013 and would come in around 5.5, an increase of about 2.5 games. Chris Iannetta finished 1.4 in 2013 and already has 1.3 in 2013, so he figures to come in about 2.5, an increase of about one game. Peter Bourjos last year had 1.2 WAR and he has 1.3 already this year, so he would be about 1.2 better over this full season, except that he can't stay in the lineup. Mark Trumbo, 2.7 WAR last year, is 1.5 so far this year, so he would come out about the same. So, we see an improvement of about five WAR in 2013 among these players.

But when we go to the secondary position players, we see mostly decline. The next five Angels position players by appearance in 2012 were Kendrys Morales (2.2), Maicer Izturis (0.3), Vernon Wells (0.6), Bobby Wilson (0.9) and John Hester (-0.1). They total up to 3.9 WAR in 2012. The next five of those players for 2013 are J.B. Shuck (0.3), Brendan Harris (-0.6), Hank Conger (1.0), Luis Jimenez (-0.0) and Andrew Romine (-0.3). They add up to 0.4, which paces out to about 0.8, another drop of three games from the comparable players of 2012.

Putting it all together, WAR tells us that the Angels, over 162 games, would be going on four games worse offensively (down from 36.7 WAR in 2012 to about 33 this year), about seven or eight games better in their pitching (up from 4.8 to 12.2) and about 14 games worse defensively (down from 4.6 to about -9.0). That accounts, give or take, for the 10-game difference to the bad this year for the Angels.

Outside of WAR's suggestion here that pitching really isn't the Angels' problem, which is a little surprising, this quick and dirty study supports much of what we can plainly see by quantifing our qualitative intuitions. We could already tell that Hamilton instead of Hunter has turned out to be a bad exchange. WAR gives us an inkling of how bad. We could already see that Pujols, Callaspo and Aybar aren't as good as they were last year. WAR gives us some purchase on the extent of those declines.

In some respects, though, we're finding WAR quite hard to believe. WAR tells us that Trout is -1.3 defensively in 2013. Really? This season, the Angels are 10th in American League ERA by starters at 4.43, compared with fifth last year at 4.04. But WAR would have us believe that they get better starts this season. According to WAR, the Angels are a couple of wins better behind the plate this year. That isn't obvious.

WAR certainly is a salty concoction. It makes our discussions, like our food, tastier and more interesting, in the right amounts. In excess, it causes thirst, bloating, high blood pressure and weakening of the bones (osteoporosis), which might also characterize a good many baseball arguments that take WAR as gospel. Perhaps, WAR should be taken with a grain of salt. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use it. But it’s not a good main course.

Angels have a good lineup ... out there ... somewhere

If we could tell you of a batting order that is proven to work for the Los Angeles Angels, that scores about a run more per game than their other lineups, would you like to see them try it? We have found such a lineup. Unfortnuately, you will never see the Angels use it when they're healthy. But they can get close enough.

With Peter Bourjos back in the lineup for the Los Angeles Angels, we might suggest a lineup that could work (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Not including the games played in National League parks, the Angels have used 40 different lineups in their first 72 games. Their most frequently used lineup has been their most successful lineup.

And, yet, it is a lineup we will never see again when the Angels are fully healthy.

The reason, of course, was that they missed center fielder Peter Bourjos for a full two months with a hamstring strain and played most of their games without him. When Bourjos returned to the lineup on June 10, Mike Trout moved back to left field and J.B. Shuck moved back to the bench.

That was just part of the impetus for going away from the successful lineup. There were others. But, first, here is the lineup that has worked best, just naming the players and their positions in batting order:

Erick Aybar (shortstop), Trout (center field), Albert Pujols (first base or designated hitter), Mark Trumbo (first base or designated hitter), Josh Hamilton (right field), Howie Kendrick (second base), Alberto Callaspo (third base), Chris Iannetta (catcher) and Shuck (left field).

The Angels are 10-5 using that lineup. Those games produced 74 runs, 4.93 runs per game, a bit up from the club's average of 4.47. In four other games, the Angels used an identical lineup, except with Hank Conger instead of Iannetta catching. In those games, the Angels are 2-2 with 24 runs, an average of six per game. Put the two together, and that basic lineup is 12-7 with 98 runs, an average of 5.15 runs per game.

In all other games, we all know, the Angels are 20-33. They’ve scored an average of 4.23 runs in those games, which is beneath the American League average. They’re a whole different club.

Why that particular lineup should work as well as it has is a bit of a mystery. Aybar has only a .269 on-base percentage in 136 plate appearances from the leadoff position. Shuck, hitting right before Aybar most of the time in that configuration, is a good hitter, but a light hitter. It's not like the lineup has the obvious elements of a winner.

But there it is, scoring 5.15 runs per game. It was, in fact, the basic configuration for the Angels during the last seven games of their eight-game winning streak from May 18-26. Further, the lineup three times scored five or more runs in losses, and two other times it scored four runs in losses. It has been a highly effective lineup. With any kind of pitching, the Angels could have won three-fourths of their games using this lineup.

Some in the statistical community say lineups don't really matter. We agree that lineups don't necessarily add up, and we have said it before. That’s not the best way to look at it. Lineups either work or they don't work, and the reasons why may be conjectured, but they may as well be left to the baseball gods. The important matter is to find a lineup that works, then keep riding it.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia is not doing that, and he has his reasons. We don't like to second guess managers. They have so much more information than we have that we don't even know what their decisions really are.

Scioscia has taken to moving Aybar down in the order, pushing Kendrick's hot bat up a notch and moving Hamilton into the two hole. By the way, watching Hamilton dog the back end of two double-play ground balls he hit in a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners at the Big A Tuesday night makes one think he should come out of the lineup altogether until he decides to run those out. But that’s another issue. As it is, Scioscoa moved Hamilton down to the seventh spot for the Angels’ next game, a 1-0 win Wednesday against the Mariners.

No one here is suggesting that Shuck should play instead of Bourjos. But here is a suggestion. Go back to that successful basic lineup, but with Bourjos in the nine hole instead of Shuck. Oddly enough, though understandably, the Angels have not tried that configuration.

Bourjos is a much better hitter than Shuck (.824 vs. .672 in OPS), though Bourjos strikes out a lot more often and walks a lot less.  However, Bourjos has an advantage of .381 vs. .329 in on-base percentage, and his ability to reach base from the bottom of the order could give the Angels a nice dimension to compensate for Aybar's ineffectiveness as a leadoff hitter.

It would be fun to see how it works. The Angels might get a few more wins out of it.

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).

Six straight wins: Angels 5, Kansas City 2

The Angels have won seven of their last 10 games, tacking up an OPS of .922 in that time. Friday, in a 5-2 win in Kansas City, the Angels claimed their sixth straight win with 11 hits. The Royals, in their last 10 games, have an OPS of .661 and lost eight of the 10.

Mike Trout has been a demon in the batter's box and on the base paths lately for the Angels (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 2.0 license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles


The game: May 24, Angels at Kansas City, American League. The Angels entered 20-27, tied for third place AL West, 10 games behind Texas. Kansas City entered 21-23, third place AL Central, five games behind Cleveland.

The pitchers: Angels, Jason Vargas, left hander (3-3 3.55). Kansas City, Luis Mendoza, right hander (1-2, 5.50).

The result: Angels 5, Kansas City 2 (Baseball-reference.com box score).

Summary: For the Angels right now, the hitting is good, the pitching is good and the fielding, at times, is real good. They're rocking, and Kansas City is reeling.

The pitching: Like just about anyone else facing the Royals these days, Angels left hander Jason Vargas had them eating out of his hand. Vargas was almost all fastball and changeup, mixing in, maybe, a curve or slider by the innings. He tended to the simpler plan lower in the Kansas City lineup, and tended to be most tricky against designated hitter Billy Butler, who really got the Angels' attention with that five-for-five game on May 13. Vargas gave up two runs in 7 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and walking four ... In seven of his last eight starts, Vargas has pitched seven or more innings and allowed three or fewer runs ... Garrett Richards, relieving Vargas, threw real well, allowing only one hit in 1 2/3 innings. Fangraphs.com says Richards has the fastest average fastball in the game at 95 MPH. In this outing, he topped out at 97 ... Richards picked up his first save of the year ... Richards took the save situation instead of Ernesto Frieri, who, despite two saves and a hold in his last three appearances, gave up at least a run in each appearance for totals of four earned runs in 3 1/3 innings ...

Kansas City manager Ned Yost told reporters he was plenty happy with the work of his starter, Luis Mendoza, who allowed only one run in five innings. However, Yost said, Mendoza was down to an effective two-seam fastball by the time he finished the fifth inning, so he went to the bullpen and Luke Hochevar, who has been effective there. However, Hochevar had an unfortunate night and took his first blown save of the year ...

The hitting: The Angels totaled 11 hits in this one, with at least a hit for everyone, except for Howie Kendrick, who still drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Well, somebody has to make the outs, and Kendrick is batting .293 ... On May 13, the Royals visited Anaheim, designated hitter Billy Butler went five-for-five with five RBI, and the visitors claimed an 11-4 win. Since that night, the Angels are hitting, and the Royals aren't. In their ten games since then, the Angels are batting .303 with 16 homers and a slash line of .384/.538/.922. In so doing, they have raised their batting for the season 10 points to .262, their on-base percentage 15 points to .325, their slugging percentage 27 points to .427 and their OPS 42 points to .752. They also walked 46 times in those games, which is 4.6 times per game and well up from their average of 2.8 walks before then ... Since that same May 13 game, the Royals are batting .252 in 10 games with three homers and a slash line of .318/.343/.661. They have brought down their team batting average three points to .264, their on-base percentage is the same at .317, their slugging percentage is down 11 points to .384 and their OPS is down 11 points to .701 ...

The base running: Running all over the place in this game. Mike Trout matched his forcefulness at the plate with daring on the bases. He came home from third on a wild pitch in the third inning, ran like mad from first to third on a short single to center in the fifth, and, in the seventh, he led off and stole second base (thanks to a gift call by second base umpire Marty Foster) ... Right after Chris Iannetta homered against Kansas City's Luke Hochevar in the sixth inning, J.B. Shuck ran hard on his triple to right field. The Angels apparently tried to get Shuck home with a squeeze play, but Erick Aybar apparently missed out on that appearance and didn't get the bunt down, so Shuck was dead between third and home ... Shuck was thrown out trying to steal in the eighth inning after leading off with a walk ... Lorenzo Cain set up a scoring fifth inning for the Royals just by running hard. He led off with a ground ball to Angels shortstop Erick Aybar, who fielded the ball in short left field and didn't get the throw to first in time. Cain, then stole second base without a throw on a 1-0 pitch and scored on a soft single by Chris Getz past a diving Aybar ...

The fielding: As the just noted fifth-inning escapades of Lorenzo Cain illustrate, it was an inning of near misses in the field for Angels shortstop Erick Aybar ... In Thursday night's series opener, a 5-4 win for the Angels, the Angels made a number of beautiful defensive plays. Third baseman Alberto Callaspo turned a double down the line into a ground out with a sharp play going his right, Howie Kendrick played outstanding second base on three different pivots to make them all into double plays, and J.B. Shuck made a nice running catch to his right in left field ... The Angels weren't as sharp defensively in the Friday game. In addition to his misfortunes in the fifth inning, Aybar made a high throw to Kendrick trying to feed a double play, and Kendrick didn't catch it. Error on Kendrick ... Kansas City, on the other hand, made two notable defensive plays Friday, including a leaping throw going toward the hole by shortstop Alcides Escobar for one ground out and a spinning throw by second baseman Chris Getz going to his left and then throwing across his body for another ...

Strategic moves: It's not part of any manager's strategy to deal with bad calls by the umpires. In the seventh inning Friday, Mike Trout led off for the Angels with a walk, then stole second base. But the throw by Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez and the tag by second baseman Chris Getz were clearly in time. Second base umpire Marty Foster flat missed the call. There should have been one out and no one on in a 2-2 game. Instead, there was a runner on second and no one out. It changes the whole approach pitching down the order. Suddenly, the batter, Albert Pujols, is a threat to drive in the tying run. So, Kansas City reliever Aaron Crow missed with his last two fastballs to walk Pujols on five pitches. No outs. Big inning brewing. If it's a 3-1 count to Pujols with one out and no one on, there's a different plan on that next pitch. But Pujols is hot, so Crow threw a high fastball well out of the zone, hoping Pujols would chase and knowing that a walk isn't the worst outcome. Again, though, Pujols is hot, so he laid off and the Angels had two on with no one out. The Angels followed all that with a single by Mark Trumbo, a sacrifice fly by Howie Kendrick and a double by Alberto Callaspo ... Nice move by Angels manager Mike Scioscia, bringing in Garrett Richards in a save situation. The regular closer, Ernesto Frieri, has struggled of late and Scioscia is demonstrating that he will not hold his team hostage over a struggling reliever. So many managers will keep going to the closer and say, "He's the guy we need to have in there at the end," because they don't want to take responsibility for the ninth inning. Scioscia takes that responsibility ...

What now: With this one game, the Angels moved up in the standings and the Royals moved down. The Angels now are 21-27, third place in the AL West, moving ahead of Seattle, which lost to Texas. The Angels still are 10 games behind the Rangers. Kansas City fell to 21-24, falling behind Chicago into fourth in the AL West. The series in Kansas City continues Saturday (11:10 a.m. PDT). The Angels are going with Billy Buckner, who has yet to appear in the big leagues this year. He will become the 21st pitcher the Angels have used this season. The club record is 29, set in 1996. Pitching for Kansas City is right hander Jeremy Guthrie (5-2, 3.49).