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The Angels’ freefall continued last week back in 1979, dropping their first four games of the week to fall out of first place in the American League West for the first time in 53 days. They recovered to win the final three games of the week to move back atop the division, but this figures to be a close race over the final four weeks.
After losing a series to the lowly Blue Jays to start the road trip the week before, the Angels started last week by getting swept in Detroit, including a pair of one-run defeats. When Nolan Ryan got shelled for a fifth straight start on Thursday in Cleveland, the Angels fell a half-game behind the surging Royals in the AL West.
Eight losses in nine games dropped the Angels out of first place for the first time since July 8.
Ryan since returning from his elbow injury has allowed 25 runs in 27 innings in five starts, with more walks (23) than strikeouts (16) to go with his 8.00 ERA for the month of August.
After scoring just six runs in the first four games of last week, all losses, the Angels offense came alive to win the final three games in Cleveland, totaling 21 runs. Willie Aikens was instrumental in those wins, with two hits and at least one RBI in each game. He hit .333/.462/.524 in six games for the week.
The Angels have 25 games remaining in the season, and lead the Royals by 1½ games and the Twins by three. They don’t have anymore games against Minnesota, but with seven games remaining against Kansas City the AL West figures to go down to the wire.
Weekly summary
3-4 record
27 runs scored (3.86 per game)
38 runs allowed (5.43 per game)
.349 pythagorean record
Year-to-date summary
74-63 record
740 runs scored (5.40 per game)
637 runs allowed (4.65 per game)
.568 pythagorean record (78-59)
AL West standing: 1st place, 1½ games up on Kansas City
Game results
- Monday, August 27: Tigers 3, Angels 2
- Tuesday, August 28: Tigers 12, Angels 2
- Wednesday, August 29: Tigers 2, Angels 1
- Thursday, August 30: Indians 7, Angels 1
- Friday, August 31: Angels 9, Indians 8
- Saturday, September 1: Angels 7, Indians 4
- Sunday, September 2: Angels 5, Indians 2
Up next
The Angels return home after a 4-6 road trip, and will host the White Sox for four games and the Brewers for three.