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#Angels now have 0.5 game lead over Houston for second Wild Card. Magic Number: 5. https://t.co/zLEtpgfTkE
— Matt Birch (@MBirchAngels) September 30, 2015
First step: Get hot. Check. Second step: climb your way into the Wild Card game. Check. The Angels, with the help of a Mariners win tonight and a victory of their own(their seventh in a row), finally got back into the playoff picture, officially, and are a half game up on Houston for the second WC spot. This has been a crazy ride, and it's not over yet.
Next step: win the division. They hold the keys to the playoff kingdom in their hands. They have another game with Oakland, and then it's a HUGE series against the Rangers, in Texas. The Astros have one more with the Mariners, and then a season finale against the Diamondbacks. Not exactly frightening competition. The Rangers have another with the Tigers, and then the aforementioned series with the Halos.
The Angels got knocked out of the division lead back on July 29th, and the steady decline in August had them out of the picture altogether. But not any more. They are in the Wild Card game, as of today. They just need to keep playing like they've been playing, and they'll hang on to it, or they'll boot Texas out of the first place spot.
Baseball is crazy.