It's been a long time since the Angels have played a schedule as important as their last ten games, seven of them against their primary challengers for the AL West. A four-game sweep has suddenly turned a coin-toss into a heavy favorite. What felt good about this team a month ago is now starting to look remarkable.
After three up and three down in the first, Scott Kazmir had pitched more innings in any season since 2007, when he played for a team called the Devil Rays. With the Angels, the former kid sensation seemed to trip headfirst into the mysterious pit from which fragile power-pitchers rarely return, but he has nevertheless made an unlikely escape over the last two seasons. Except that to my eyes, and probably many others, he fell right back just as soon as he took the mound in the bottom of the second. When Josh Hamilton broke his bat to lead off the inning, the ball fell in for a hit, and then Kazmir proceeded to walk four of the next six batters while allowing an RBI single to one of the others. Out came the hook, just in time for Mike Trout to loop another flare into the outfield for two runs batted in. The Angels pushed across six runs in all, and might have got more if Trout hadn't made the last out at home. Not bad for keeping their bats on their shoulders.
That was pretty much the ballgame. The A's could do nothing at all with Matt Shoemaker, who after flirting with a no-hitter in his last start, has suddenly emerged as the Angels' very improbable ace, as a 28 year-old rookie no less. He scattered just five singles across seven otherwise flawless innings, striking out seven just for fun, though the A's did scratch Mike Morin for a run in the eighth—their first in more than 30 innings. On the other hand, a pair of late homers from Mike Trout and Chris Iannetta made that pretty much irrelevant.
Thus ends the wild month of August, which the Angels started just one game behind the A's before falling four games back in a week, pulling even another week after that, and then ended with a four-game sweep that pushed their division rival into a five-game hole with just 26 to play. Both teams have similar schedules in September, and only three games left head-to-head, so the Angels are in, shall we say, a very, very good position to win the division.
Go forth, comrades, and celebrate! Whatever your thoughts on Scioscialism, tomorrow's Labor Day will be Red.