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The Angels will NOT let you turn away from this season. Oh, you thought "well, at least football has started" and maybe you didn't have to watch this club? Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Halos just kicked some serious, AL West-leading Astro ass this weekend, and have rocketed into a 2.5 game hole behind the Houston front runners. Insane. And they did it all on the backs of the young first baseman from Utah, C.J. Cron.
We've waited and waited for Cron to turn into a ruthless masher of opposing pitching. We thought for sure it'd come this season, after seeing Cron lay waste to fools in the spring. But in the first month or two of the season, Cron just didn't look the same and our lust for his power had once again been deflated. He was shipped off to Salt Lake City, where he began raking again almost immediately. He was angry. You don't make a monster like this angry.
This weekend, that anger was on full display. Once again, he put on a show of brute strength before the thousands of Halo hopefuls, hitting two home runs as the Angels cruised to an unwavering 3-0 win. Mike Trout got things started with a bomb in the first, his 35th. Cron hit his first of the day in the second, off of Houston starter Mike Fiers, and got his second in the seventh(Fiers still on the bump). C.J. is a force to be reckoned with, especially when he's going against the Rangers and Astros, apparently. The kid likes to eat his divisional rivals for breakfast, and i'm okay with that.
Andrew Heaney and the bullpen worked into the sixth and kept the not-so-tough Astros from scoring. Heaney would go five innings, and while giving up six hits, he worked out of jams to keep runs off the board. Fernando Salas, Trevor Gott, Joe Smith and Huston Street formed the perfect relief pitching Voltron, and they almost walked away with the combined shutout. Street would have a meltdown in the ninth, though, giving up a homer to Preston Tucker, and then an RBI single to Jose Altuve. That single was actually stopped in an amazing diving play at second by Taylor Featherston, but it was hit so hard, it got stuck into the webbing of his glove and he was unable to get the throw off. It was a mini-heart attack inning
Sorry...you aren't allowed to stop watching Angels baseball. They have some fight left in them, and now they've won four in a row and are only 2.5 games out of first place in the AL West. They're doing it behind guys like Kole Calhoun and C.J. Cron, and if Mike Trout can become his superhuman self once again, they'll be formidable down the stretch. Don't blink, and don't sleep on this team. Don't lose hope.
A lot of season left to play...plenty of time for them to screw it up, perhaps. But plenty of time left, and the right schedule on the books, for them to blow our minds and surge into the Red October promised land.
Go Halos.
HUSTON STREET RUINED EVERYTHING BY BLOWING UP THE GAME IN THE NINTH, AND GIVING UP A THREE RUN HOMER WITH TWO OUTS.. ANGELS PULLED AN ULTIMATE BUTTERCUPPING. GO ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR DAY.