Angels right on Yankees' heels in quest for baseball Nirvana
It's been quite a giddy ride for the Yankees since the All-Star break, stampeding their way toward October after a one-year hiatus with renewed, actually realistic dreams of achieving their annual goal of the World Series.
Do you think the Yankees, who are a major-league best 26-8 since the break, have had a chance to notice who might be standing in their way for a trip to baseball's Nirvana? That would be the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - never a welcome sight to Yankee legions - who, in stealth-like fashion, are 24-10 since the All-Star break, to make a similar runaway of the American League West. The one big difference is the Angels have managed to carve out their 73-47 record entering the weekend without some of their best players - Vlad Guerrero, Torii Hunter, John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders - for significant periods of time. Indeed, if there has been one key factor in the Yankees' ability to take command of the AL East, it's that they've been able to stay relatively injury-free, no small feat for a veteran team.
By contrast, the Angels had to do without their two top pitchers Lackey (forearm) and Santana (elbow) for the first month and half (Santana again went on the disabled list from June 23-July 3 with the same injury), while Guerrero missed 58 games with a pectoral injury and Hunter was sidelined 39 games with assorted injuries. And then there was the elbow injury to Saunders that shut him down a month ago after he'd put up nine wins. Lastly, Scot Shields, their primary set-up reliever, was lost for the season with a knee injury. And let's not forget that always lingering in their minds is the tragic death of Nick Adenhart, who had earned a spot in their rotation, in that auto crash at the beginning of the season.
But under Mike Scioscia, who always seems to be in the manager-of-the-year discussion, the Angels' credo is: Don't look back at what might have been. Play for the now and what is.
And what is with these Angels is a patchwork but serviceable pitching staff, anchored by new ace Jered Weaver, and a buzzsaw of a lineup that boasts not one but four MVP candidates in Chone Figgins, Bobby Abreu, Kendry Morales and even Hunter. At the end of their game against Cleveland last Tuesday, all nine batters in the Angels' lineup had .300 batting averages - the first time that had happened after 100 or more games since the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 9, 1934. If there were ever a lineup that epitomizes the patient, "see more pitches," high on-base percentage philosophy Gene Michael instituted with the championship Yankee teams of the last decade, it's this one.
Do you think the Yankees, who are a major-league best 26-8 since the break, have had a chance to notice who might be standing in their way for a trip to baseball's Nirvana? That would be the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - never a welcome sight to Yankee legions - who, in stealth-like fashion, are 24-10 since the All-Star break, to make a similar runaway of the American League West. The one big difference is the Angels have managed to carve out their 73-47 record entering the weekend without some of their best players - Vlad Guerrero, Torii Hunter, John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders - for significant periods of time. Indeed, if there has been one key factor in the Yankees' ability to take command of the AL East, it's that they've been able to stay relatively injury-free, no small feat for a veteran team.
By contrast, the Angels had to do without their two top pitchers Lackey (forearm) and Santana (elbow) for the first month and half (Santana again went on the disabled list from June 23-July 3 with the same injury), while Guerrero missed 58 games with a pectoral injury and Hunter was sidelined 39 games with assorted injuries. And then there was the elbow injury to Saunders that shut him down a month ago after he'd put up nine wins. Lastly, Scot Shields, their primary set-up reliever, was lost for the season with a knee injury. And let's not forget that always lingering in their minds is the tragic death of Nick Adenhart, who had earned a spot in their rotation, in that auto crash at the beginning of the season.
But under Mike Scioscia, who always seems to be in the manager-of-the-year discussion, the Angels' credo is: Don't look back at what might have been. Play for the now and what is.
And what is with these Angels is a patchwork but serviceable pitching staff, anchored by new ace Jered Weaver, and a buzzsaw of a lineup that boasts not one but four MVP candidates in Chone Figgins, Bobby Abreu, Kendry Morales and even Hunter. At the end of their game against Cleveland last Tuesday, all nine batters in the Angels' lineup had .300 batting averages - the first time that had happened after 100 or more games since the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 9, 1934. If there were ever a lineup that epitomizes the patient, "see more pitches," high on-base percentage philosophy Gene Michael instituted with the championship Yankee teams of the last decade, it's this one.
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