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Dan Haren's back felt better, apparently, because tonight it looked like Dan Haren's back...in 2011 form, that is. Or perhaps that is premature. But he needed a victory like this, to say the least. Oh, and that Albert Pujols fellow squared up a few balls nicely, hit one out of the park. You know, just a great game to watch, basically. Ho hum.

I'm sorry, what I meant to say was:

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Bob turns 71 today. He is about a year older than Jim Fregosi.

Just watch the damn video and understand it was made in prehistory but the lyrics reference partying a little too hard with one of the Angels (probably Bo Belinsky) who had just flown east to start a road trip from LA.

Don't look now, but the Angels have won two in-a-row! Celebrate with some links:

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Final Score in Oakland: Angels 3, Athletics 1 in 11 innings

Alberto Callaspo had a clutch 2 RBI double with two outs in the 11th inning to "break open" a 1-1 tie. This qualifies as an offensive juggernaut for the Angels these days, two runs scoring on a swing of the bat being as foreign to Anaheim as Yosemite Sam hunting Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.

Jered Weaver pitched an excellent 8 innings of 1-run baseball, allowing 3 hits, only striking out 4 and walking 2 on a day the plate was fat for Oakland. But it skinnied up by the time Ernesto Frieri took the mound with a two-run lead. The newly-acquired reliever struck out the side for his first save as an Angel.

Recent AAA callup Kole Calhoun was 1 for 4 in his first start in the big leagues. Angels manager Mike Scioscia has been quoted as assuming that Torii Hunter will rejoin the team after the current road trip concludes this Sunday. Hunter is on the restricted list dealing with a family issue as the Halos premiere their 2013 team for a trial run, now 4-4 since the dismissal of longtime batting coach Mickey Hatcher.

The Angels won the series 2-1 from the A's, gain a game on the Rangers and head to Seattle for a four game set under the roof at SafeCo.

Wednesday links are the humpiest:

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C.J. Wilson abstained from alcohol, tobacco, and opposing base-runners on Tuesday night, delivering a straight-edged, one-hit beatdown to the pitiful Athletics lineup on Tuesday night. The A's are one of the few major-league teams with worse offensive numbers than the Angels this season, and that gulf is now just a little bit wider, because the Halos equaled their offensive output over the last three games against a random of assortment of pitchers that no one has ever heard of before. It was a feel-good 5-0 win, just enough to build you up, before they let you...you know how the song goes.

The offense showered CJ with a lavish three-run lead before he even took the field. Six of the first seven batters either walked or singled, and it could have been even more were it not for Mike Scioscia's Rollerball-inspired running game, which committed two of three outs on the bases. The Angels got one more on an Albert Pujols homer in the fourth, and some miscellaneous reliever plunked Erick Aybar with the bases loaded to force in one more in the seventh. Aybar left the game as a precaution--you can't be too careful with a $35 million investment.

I've been pretty skeptical of Wilson all along, but the guy has been getting it done, at least so far. Right now he is probably the least of the many long-term worries for avid Angel fans. It's hard to believe that Wilson was a mediocre middle reliever on an all-around horrible pitching staff just a few years back, and maybe that's the source of my prejudice. The Rangers won, by the way, so the Angels will have to settle for eight games back as of tonight. At least the bleeding appears to have stopped, Albert Pujols has started to hit balls out of the infield again, and a winning record doesn't seem quite so impossible as it did 24 hours ago.