By now, it feels like the Angels have been cruising behind the A's in the second place since, like, late summer 2002. I have to confess, I haven't been overwhelmingly confident that this moment would come, or that it might last for very long, but what I believe doesn't make any difference does it? So screw you, quantitatively minded skepticism--EXUBERANT FAN MODE, ENGAGE!
If you saw last night's game, or even if you didn't, you could probably just look at the boxscore and get pretty much the whole picture tonight as well. The Angels built a decent lead by the middle innings (except 5-0 this time, instead of 4-1) behind some big hits, which pretty much always involve Kole Calhoun these days--though Albert Pujols did poke one over the fence just to remind us why he's the world's best average player--and a solid start from Matt Shoemaker, who might have been pulled a little too early in my opinion. The soft middle-relief crew showed why they are usually described as a "soft middle-relief crew," but to be fair, Mike Morin did just get off the DL. Fortunately, Joe Smith and Huston Street shut it down like a Shields-Rodriguez Tenth Anniversary edition.
A quarter season left now. The A's would still seem to have a bit of an edge, but I'm glad to see some of my earlier doubts diminishing. I worried that not even the Mike Trout Show could hold down the creaky and overpaid top of the order all by myself, and so here's Kole Calhoun taking up some of the slack. Between Kendrick, Aybar, Navarro, Cowgill, and Iannetta, the mid-to-late part of the lineup usually has something going on as well. And the backend of the bullpen is not a total wrecking crew anymore.
So, of course, Brennan Boesch had to be DH tonight, because Mike Scioscia just couldn't stand to give us anything to feel 100% positive about.