THURSDAY HALOLINKS: Jered Weaver Reaches Career High

Up next for Angels: Thursday vs. Seattle -- latimes.com
John Lackey vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith

Angels continue to roll, top Mariners at home - FOX Sports on MSN
Los Angeles, which moved back to a season-best 28 games over .500 (83-55), will face Texas seven times down the stretch, which suits Weaver (15-5) just fine. "It's a good thing for us," said Weaver, who never allowed the Mariners to have multiple runners on base. "Last year, we clinched early and didn't really get that momentum going into the postseason (where they lost a first-round series to Boston). Knowing that Texas is playing well, we know we can't just sit back and wait for something to happen. That's good for us."

Weaver drops Mariners for milestone - angelsbaseball.com
Reaching the 15-win plateau, a career high, and the 50-win summit in his fourth Major League season, Weaver took a few deep breaths in the afterglow of a 6-3 decision over the Mariners that kept the Angels' American League West lead at 4 1/2 games over the surging Rangers.

Weaver, Angels lined up - OCRegister.com
Weaver struck out eight and didn't walk a batter in his 61/3 innings. Over his past three starts, Weaver has caught a late-season second wind: three runs allowed on 20 hits and three walks in 191/3 innings.

Mariners-Angels Preview - FOX Sports on MSN
In his second attempt to earn at least 10 victories for the seventh consecutive season, Lackey will try to beat Seattle for just the second time in seven home starts dating back to 2005. He's 1-3 with a 6.93 ERA in the previous six matchups with the Mariners in Anaheim but had won six consecutive overall starts against them before a loss May 29 in which he allowed five runs and 10 hits in 7 1-3 innings. He beat the Mariners on May 18 despite giving up five runs over five innings.

Team Reports - CBSSports.com
The Angels have clinched their sixth consecutive winning season. Only three teams have longer active streaks -- the Yankees (already clinched their 17th), the Red Sox (one more victory to clinch their 12th) and the Phillies (three more victories to clinch their seventh).

Team Reports II - CBSSports.com
The Angels have gone through 14 starting pitchers in search of some consistency and quality from their rotation this season. They're finally getting it as the season reaches the home stretch. With Jered Weaver's start Wednesday, Angels starting pitchers have a 1.59 ERA (16 R, 13 ER, 73 2/3 IP) over their last 11 games. In the 30 games before this stretch, their starters had a 6.21 ERA.

Video Highlights from 9-9-09:

Angels score early to maintain AL West lead - angelsbaseball.com
Daily Recap: The Angels wasted little time responding to Texas' win, posting four runs in the first to restore a 4 1/2-game AL West lead

Morales plates three runs in the first - angelsbaseball.com
Kendry Morales doubles to left field, scoring three runs and giving the Angels an early four-run lead

Rivera hammers his 22nd homer to center - angelsbaseball.com
Juan Rivera jacks a two-run shot to center field, opening up a 6-2 lead for the Angels in the eighth inning

Deke of the week goes to Ichiro - Angels Unplugged - Los Angeles Times
With Maicer Izturis on second base, Bobby Abreu on first and one out, Vladimir Guerrero lofted a fly ball to deep right field. Ichiro went back to the warning track and feigned as if he was camped under the ball, which prompted Izturis to tag up at second.

Touched By An Angel - 09.14.09 - SI Vault
By the afternoon of April 9 the baseball world had learned of the death of Angels starting pitcher Nick Adenhart and his friends Courtney Stewart and Henry Pearson in a car crash, and information started to emerge about that other passenger, a 24-year-old youth baseball coach named Jon Wilhite, who had been a catcher at Cal State--Fullerton.

NBC Sports - Stealing Cal Ripken's Number
Four men have been arrested on charges of felony theft and destruction of property, accused of removing a four-foot aluminum monument to Cal Ripken from outside Camden Yards on Wednesday. It took police all of two hours to track them down, thanks to a number of mistakes they made along the way ...

Angels: Front office gathers in Anaheim for organizational meetings - PE.com
The team spent the first day discussing internal matters and will spend Thursday discussing the rest of major league baseball.

Fuentes' save gone, forgotten - angelsbaseball.com
Fuentes has notched his 39 saves in 45 opportunities for a .867 success rate. If he is being measured against his predecessor, Francisco Rodriguez, in his record-setting 2008 season, Fuentes is falling short of K-Rod's 62-for-69 (.899) performance. If, however, Fuentes is evaluated against the K-Rod closing for the Mets this season, the lefty has the edge. Rodriguez has converted 30-of-35 potential saves for a success rate of .857.

Pitching for Tommy Lasorda - SweetSpot by Rob Neyer - ESPN
I do have just a tiny bit of advice, though: When you're arguing for a bit more flexibility, perhaps a bit of freedom from the tyranny of the pitch count, you might want to avoid mentioning Tommy Lasorda, Bleeder of Dodger Blue and Destroyer of Tender Young Arms.

September 10 - BR Bullpen
Events, births and deaths that occurred on September 10.
1969 - Using a major-league record 27 players in one game, the Royals lose 11 - 4 at California. Andy Messersmith faces 20 different batters in the complete game win, while KC uses six pitchers.
1976 - Nolan Ryan hurls a 3-hit 3 - 2 victory for California, fanning 18 White Sox batsmen.
1985 - To bolster their pitching staff for the pennant race, the Angels acquire veteran Don Sutton from the A's for two players to be named later.
2002 - A game after their 10 - game win streak ends, the Angels inch closer to the first place A's with a 6 - 5 win at Anaheim. The A's blow a 4 - 0 lead but the Angels tie in the 4th and go ahead on Shawn Wooten's 2 - run double in the 6th. The Angels lead the M's by six games in the wild card race.

Angels Magic Number = 20