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Tonight was full of milestones and landmarks for the Angels. They ultimately walked away with the victory, too, and that’s all well and good but the Twins also won, thanks to some late-inning heroics. Minnesota is the team that cannot die, and now the Halos are the team that is on the verge of crossing over into the netherworld. Still, there is a chance. Especially if our dudes keep playing like they did this evening.
Last night, when the Angels lost the series opener to the lowly White Sox, every fan had a secret shame they held inside them brought on by the fact that the Angels, if they really are a charmed ball club, should wipe the floor with Chicago, not get shot down by them. Tonight, we saw a Halos team that had firepower coming from bats and coming from the mound.
For the second time this season, the Angels hit three home runs in one inning. Tonight, it was Brandon Phillips, Luis Valbuena and Mike Trout going deep in the second inning, and that was just the beginning of the Halo Blitz that they laid down on the White Sox in this tussle. Justin Upton and Albert Pujols would also get RBI, with Pujols’ run batted in being his 100th of the season. It marked his 14th season with 100+ RBI, and made him just the second MLB player ever to have 14 100+ RBI seasons (A-Rod).
Those were milestones. Here is the landmark: The Twins won, which means they will clinch a spot if they either win one more game, or the Angels lose one more game. From tonight and on through the rest of the highway to hell that is the 2017 MLB season, these Halos can’t lose. They must be perfect, and that’s just to get them into a weird wild card tie situation; so therefore, they could also use some missteps by Minnesota.
Angels kicking ass and the Twins being losers...two things we haven’t seen a lot of lately. That’s what it’s going to take, though. We know what they’ve got ahead of them. Do they have enough voodoo left in the tank?