There is a growing movement among baseball aficionados to only accept the quantifiable moments of the game as truth. If it can be measured, documented and expressed in numerical form, then it is valid and of interest - it becomes truth manifest and is added with other numerical expressions of truth to form one big truth. These truths, great and small, are used to reinterpret the past as often as they are to divine the future.
Baseball fans that do not adhere to this orthodoxy of measurements draw the scorn of this crowd. There are parallels here to the fissure between adherents to the scientific method and believers in a higher power. Fans who invoke "Chemistry" or "Momentum" or "Clutch Hitter" draw the same bemusement from the statistical measurements crowd that a little girl in her Sunday best receives from a computer programmer dropping off a Lord of the Rings Netflix at the mailbox. They share the beauty of that same morning, that same great game, but they see it from entirely antithetical points of view.
If the three games series that the Angels just played in Seattle did not make you believe in the power of team chemistry, the magic of momentum or the existence of a clutch hitter, than nothing in the next century of baseball will. The facets of this great game that cannot be drawn out on a spreadsheet do exist. They were on display, palpably, conclusively. In game one, Lackey's dominance was indisputably carrying the momentum of Kelvim's win on Sunday. Tuesday's come from behind masterpiece showed the rare chemistry of a group that does not accept domination - and to meld that many personalities to feed off of the smidgens of success when a team is at its lowest point is absolutely the presence of a team that has bonded in the name of performance beyond the capacity of combining individual talent. And the clutch hitting was peppered all over the delicious steak that can only be known hereafter as The Safeco Salughter.
Believe, people.
This team rose to its toughest challenge - 17 games in 16 days. They went 10-7. That is 95 wins extrapolated over an entire season - if a season didn't have days off and played road doubleheaders twice a month.
That is 7 games in 6 days, 3 days on turf and 4 games in 3 days against the team with the best record in basbeall. Then 2 of 3 against the media darlings of all time (1 in extra innings) at a home field with an exhuberantly divided loyalty. Then 4 against a former Cy Young winner and an offensive Canadian wrecking crew. And then the character test - 3 against the team with the best home record in baseball, the most comeback wins in baseball and the team closest to them in the standings.
Chemistry, Momentum, Clutch Hitting. It reminds one of 2002, but this team is not 2002. They may, in fact, be better.