Angels Answer Adversity (62/81)

Down 5-4 in the bottom on the ninth, playoff hopes slowly slipping away, the Angels were down to their final two outs. As cliché as it sounds, the Angels were not going to go down without a fight.

With one out in the ninth, Erick Aybar was hit by a pitch then proceeded to steal second. Alberto Callaspo was up next and then walked to put the go-ahead run on first base.

21-year-old rookie phenom, Mike Trout, stepped up to the plate. With the pressure on, Trout quickly found his way into a 0-2 count. Not to be rattled, the undisputed Rookie of the Year showed composure extending far beyond his years and roped a broken bat single, that had more spin than a carnival ride, up the middle for an RBI base hit.

Thanks to Trout's clutch hit, the Angels were now tied at 5-a-piece with runners at the corners and only one out. Angel's veteran, Torii Hunter stepped up to the plate with the game on the line and hit a long fly ball that allowed Callaspo to score from third and the fireworks to explode. The Angels had beaten the Boston Red Sox for the fourth time in 7 days with a final score of 6-5.

The Angels had done it. They did not fold under the pressure of a ninth-inning deficit. With this kind of tenacity, clutch, and a little bit of luck, the Angels have a shot to erase their four and a half game deficit out of the Wild Card with 33 games left.

Angels sWEPT (59, 60, 61/81)

Like most Angels fans, I spent the whole weekend in denial and trying to figure out what is wrong with the Angels. How could a team with so much talent fall into such a deep spiral?

The Angels got swept in four games by the Tampa Bay Rays this past weekend, a team that the Angels are racing against for the second AL Wild Card spot. The thing that has been so frustrating about their 7-13 run through August is that there is no excuses. Angels no longer have anyone on the disabled list and no one on the team seems to be going under a prolonged slump, so what's wrong?

The Angels have averaged 5.25 runs a game for the month of August, but Angels pitchers have also given up 6.85 runs per game during that same period. August has easily been the Angel's worst month, but compared to May (their best month when they went 18-11) they only averaged 3.75 runs per game, but pitchers only gave up 3.34 runs per game. The pattern here seems to be that good early season pitching was able to carry a struggling offense, but a good offense at the end of the season has done nothing to make up for the pitcher's failures.

I think everyone is asking at this point, what is wrong with the pitchers? They're healthy, but lacking confidence. They're trying to do too much and over-thinking their pitches. The past month has resulted in too many walks and too many balls left over the plate that have turned into home runs. For crying out loud, the Angel's most consistent pitcher over the last few weeks has been none other than fat face, Ervin Santana, although he might have an explanation for that. What is different with the pitchers now that wasn't there back in May and June? I don't think anyone outside of the Angels clubhouse can answer that one, and I would bet money that they can't answer it either.

Maddon Has the Angels Number (58/81)

Say what you want about Mike Scioscia, but we all know the real brains behind his coaching staff circa 2002 was current Tampa Bay Rays coach Joe Maddon.

From left to right, Bobby Ramos, Mike Scioscia, Alfredo Griffin, Joe Maddon, Mickey Hatcher, Ron Roenicke and Bud Black.

The Angels continued the 10 year anniversary of their 2002 World Series Championship Thursday, by welcoming former bench coach, Maddon, home and getting shut out by the Rays 7-0.

Above we see the Angels coaching staff of 2002 celebrating their World Series win. Four of the men above, who were once the collective brain of the Angels, have gone on to have success in the majors as managers.

As we know, Scioscia still runs things in Anaheim. Maddon was the first to go and became the manager of the Rays in 2006. He subsequently turned that team around and has been contending for the playoffs every year since. In 2007, pitching coach, Black, left for the San Diego Padres and turned their pitching rotation to a legitimate playoff contender in 2010. Finally in 2011, Roenicke moved on to become the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers and took the team to a franchise record 96-66 in his first season.

Maddon has had the Angels number recently. The Angels have been shut out by Maddon's Rays in the past 3 games and have been shut out 4 times overall by the Rays. The Angels record this year versus the Rays is 1-6, and they've only been able to score 8 total runs against the Rays in 7 games. Whatever Maddon is doing with his computers and metrics, it's working because the Angels have not been able to adjust and figure it out.

What the Hell Happened to Ervin Santana's Face? (57/81)

Throughout his season long struggle, Ervin Santana has faced his share of problems. The dude went from being the number 2 starter on the team only 2 seasons ago to barely hanging onto his rotation spot by the fringe of his fingers. Something was brought to my attention last night that shattered my world forever. My pops asked me, "Is it me or does Santana's face look bigger than normal?"

I never really thought about it until my dad mentioned it, but oh my gawd! What the heck happened to Ervin? He really let himself go lately.

Santana looks like he got stung in the face with a buttload of bees. It's something I never noticed before, but I'll give a few theories on what I think happened to the Dominican right hander.

1. His recent struggles have put him on the breakup diet

Ladies, you know what the breakup diet is. When you get depressed that your man broke up with you, you get out that tub of ice cream and hold onto it with a vice grip tighter than the one you get during child birth. I've felt that grip; it's deadly. Men can also fall into the breakup diet when the reach a state of depression and start to not care about their appearance. Santana might've got so fed up with his struggles that he started to feed up his belly.

2. Maybe Dominicans gain weight easier than everyone else

When you look at guys like Bartolo Colon, David Ortiz and Juan Uribe, this idea doesn't seem so farfetched. Colon always had trouble keeping his weight down when he was with the Angels and Ortiz is just a big guy in general. Santana went from skinny jeans to puffy cheeks in a matter or weeks/months, but being Dominican won't explain that.

3. Maybe he had an allergic reaction

To bees or a certain medication that caused his face to swell up. This one seems most plausible because Santana doesn't look like he's rocking a big gut. His face just seems swollen and round.

4. Juicing?

With the way the league sets up their random drug tests and how damaging being caught can be to your career (right, Ryan Braun? Oh wait...) you'd have to be a fool to rock the steroids in this era. Well, we found our fool. Fellow Dominican Melky Cabrera was recently popped for having an illegal amount of testosterone in his system. The pressures of being a major league player and making millions of dollars can be too much for some people, and Santana could fall into that category.

Santana is in his contract year and Angels are unlikely to resign him after the inconsistency he's shown this season. Steroids are proven to cause your head to swell and your balls to shrink. I sure hope this isn't the case for Santana, but if he's got raisin testicles, he's gonna be out of a job for more than just the offseason. Let's just hope I'm wrong about all this stuff, and he just happened to get back in line one too many times at the seafood buffet.

Screw Tacos, Angels Want to Take Back The West (56/81)

The Angels came one run short of giving all fans in attendance a free taco from Chronic Tacos with their 9-6 win over the Cleveland Indians last night. When the Angels score 10 runs or more and win, all fans in attendance receive a free taco if they present their game ticket at Chronic Tacos within a week of the game. As much as I'm sure the Angels want to score 10 or more runs every game, I think they're just fine with knocking off a game from Texas and Oakland last night.

The Angels celebrated the 10th Anniversary of their World Series win in 2002 last night. All fans in attendance received a replica World Series ring figurine (above) and former closer, Troy Percival, threw out the first pitch. Percy looks to be pushing the waistband a little more than in his pitching days, but it was a great moment to be at the game last night to witness him back on the field. It feels like yesterday when the Angels beat the Giants in an electrifying 7-game series to win their first title.

Back to the game: The Angels jumped on Indian's starter Ubaldo Jimenez early and never looked back. After the first five batters the Angels sent to the plate, they were up 3-0 with no outs. By the time the first inning ended, the Angels were up 4-0 and had batted around the order.

Good thing those bats didn't cool off though because despite home runs from Albert Pujols and the hot-hitting Erick Aybar, the Angels bullpen started feeling shaky again. Once Indians, and former Angels, first baseman Casey Kotchman hit a 2-run bomb to right field off of LaTroy Hawkins, Mike Scioscia didn't mess around and went immediately to Kevin Jepsen despite there already being two outs.

Ernesto Frieri was able to close the door on this one to earn his 14th save of the season and give Zack Greinke his first win as an Angel. With as shaky as the bullpen has been this month, I can't wait until Scott Downs and Jordan Walden show up, and it better be soon.

Bullpen Sucks and Blows Another One (55/81)

Remember in the middle of the season when the Angels bullpen inexplicably turned their season around and began pitching lights out? With the acquisition of Ernesto Frieri and an innovative closer system implemented by Mike Scioscia, the Angels bullpen began holding leads for the first time in two years. All of that has gone away and the Angels bullpen is once again back to meeting expectations.

Angels were struggling to get back into the game, down 3-0 in the 8th inning when Albert Pujols came through with a clutch 2-run home run. With the score 3-2 going into the 9th, the Angels handed the ball over to relief pitcher Hisanori Takahashi. Takahashi then proceeded to give up 3 hits to 3 batters before being relieved by Jason Isringhausen. Not even the veteran Isringhausen could close the door on that mess as the inning ended with the Cleveland Indians up 6-2.

What happened? Recently asked about the team's struggles, Torii Hunter responded, "I can't talk about that," Hunter said. "I will never talk about my pitchers."

With a staff ERA of 6.67 in August, the worst in all of baseball, Angels have watched their name tumble down the standing further behind Texas and now fifth in the Wild Card standings.

Angels pitching coach, Mike Butcher, was thrown out of the game the other night for getting in the face of an umpire when he took issue over the umpire's strike zone against Jered Weaver. As a result, Butcher has been suspended one game by the league. It will be interesting to see if the Angels shutout the Indians tonight, and everyone makes a big stink about Butcher being the problem.

I'll stand by what I've been saying all year, the Angels need a breath of fresh air in their pitching approach. Despite their unquestionable talent, the pitching has struggled and someone needs to man up and accept the blame or turn things around.

Angels Series Versus Mariners: In Dire Need of Heat (52, 53, 54/81)

It's funny that during the hottest weekend of the year in Anaheim, the Angels couldn't find a way to turn up the heat. I'm going to be honest, I was on vacation at the river this weekend and wasn't able to catch any of the games, but on paper, it doesn't look pretty. I decided to bunch up the weekend series because: 1. It's easier for me this way, and 2. Because the farther Angels fall out of playoff contention, the less ink they deserve.

The key phrase here is "on paper." On paper, the Angels have one of the best, if not the best, teams in all of baseball. The Angels have 4 starters that could be aces on many of the league's pitching staffs. They have a Hall of Fame-level first baseman who could be spoken in the same breath as some of the best baseball players of all time. They have a versatile Rookie of the Year runner up who is exceeding even the highest of expectations in his power-hitting, sophomore tour. They have a deeper outfield than the Pacific Ocean, with Peter Bourjos and Vernon Wells coming off the bench. Their full-time DH is a switching hitting, ball crushing Cuban Missile and have one of the best defensive, double-play combos in baseball up the middle, and yet the Angels are 8 GAMES OUT OF FIRST PLACE! I still haven't even mentioned their historic 2012 Rookie of the Year, potential AL MVP, Mike Trout, yet.

The reality of the situation is that for all of the Angels talent, they have produced in the clutch. Their situational hitting has been atrocious all year. Their bullpen has been an up and down roller coaster of inconsistency, and, with the exception of Jered Weaver, the Angels starting pitchers have underperformed throughout large stretches the entire season.

The pitching situation is a mess, and Mike Butcher is starting to feel the heat. The Angels pitching coach got thrown out of the game last night for getting in the face of umpire Mike Estabrook for his strike zone on Weaver.

For those of you that don't play MLB 12: The Show, I'll confirm your suspicions. The Angels main three coaches (Mike Scioscia, Mickey Hatcher, and Butcher) have negative stat-modifier in every category that affects your team. The Angels have already done the right thing by axing Hatcher, which ended up coinciding with an immediate offensive spark plug with the call-up of Trout and the promotion of hitting coach Jim Eppard.

The Angels need another spark to light up the tail end of this season, and while getting rid of Butcher's negative statistics won't have any effect this late in the season, the Angels should really bring a fresh face and some clean air into the clubhouse. I hear Troy Percival will be throwing out the first pitch at the Angels game versus the Indian today. Maybe he can stop by and squint the Angels bullpen into shaping up.

I honestly don't know if the Angels will make the playoffs at their current pace, but they are by no means out of it yet. The teams that win the World Series aren't always the teams with the best record; they're the teams who get hot at the end of the season and ride it all the way through October. Angels just need to get hot in this final month and a half, but with the Angels lack of consistency, finding enough kerosene to keep it going might be tough.