ANAHEIM — For those who stopped paying attention to the Angels after the first month of the season, here’s a bulletin: No, they are not yet out of playoff contention.
Of course, the odds are still good that as the long season unfolds, the young guys will fall back, and the truly good times won’t come until another year or two down the road. But there’s something brewing here, the stirrings of something that could be really special …
… if the organization doesn’t screw it up.
Because that’s always the possibility with the Arte Moreno Angels, isn’t it? Be it rash action or inaction, something will happen, the forward momentum will be blunted, and we’ll be back to arguing whether the franchise is cursed because of that old story about the stadium being built on a Native American burial ground or because Arte changed the team’s geographic identifier from Anaheim to Los Angeles two decades ago.
Things could be worse, of course. Just ask anyone following the saga of the (Home Town Identity Withheld) A’s, formerly of Oakland, currently playing out of Sacramento, presumably bound for Las Vegas, and due in Anaheim to open a series Monday night.
In other words, Angel fans, count your blessings and hope – pray? – that the city of Anaheim and Moreno’s organization can reach some sort of agreement that enables the team to remain right here. (Next season, incidentally, is the 60th anniversary of the Angels’ arrival in Orange County. Wouldn’t that be good timing for a new deal?)
In the meantime, who knows? Maybe this team will do enough right on the field that by season’s end you’ve forgotten, at least for a while, the identity of the owner. (And believe me, I’ve heard enough from disaffected yet still loyal Angels fans over the years to realize how tall a task that is.)
There seems to be confidence in the Angels clubhouse – and not misplaced confidence, either – that if nothing else, this is going to be a far more interesting summer than most of the experts seemed to think going in.
Even after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Seattle, in which the Angels ran into a torrid pitching performance by Seattle’s George Kirby – interrupted only by Taylor Ward’s two-run homer in the fourth, a 432-foot shot for a brief 2-1 lead – they’re 5½ games between AL West leader Houston and 4½ out of a wild card spot. The Angels have won four out of six, five of nine since a five-game losing streak at the hands of the Marlins (?) and the Yankees (!), and they’re 18-15 since May 2 … and 13-9 since the start of that late May series in The Ravine in which they swept the Dodgers.
Was that a blip or an anomaly? Maybe from the Dodgers’ standpoint. Maybe not – quite likely not – from the Angels’ side.
“We’ve always believed in what we’re able to do,” catcher Logan O’Hoppe said. That’s been the same since we want to spring training before we even played a game that counts.
“So it’s a weird time of year right now. There’s so much time left and you’ve already covered a good bit. You know, it’s a it’s a weird middle ground, you know. I’m happy to say though, at that point we have a lot of confidence in what we’re able to do. By no means is today’s loss something that we’re going to carry with us going forward. Ran into a good performance, and looking forward to tomorrow with where we’re at.”
One potential sign that the Angels are prepared to make this interesting: A bullpen that started the season quite shakily has turned things around. Since May 19, Angels relievers have a collective 2.36 ERA, and that includes 4⅓ scoreless innings Sunday.
Hunter Strickland replaced Tyler Anderson with two out in the fifth Sunday after the Mariners had reclaimed the lead, 3-2; Strickland gave up an infield single to load the bases but got out of that ajam and provided two more scoreless innings before handing it off to Jose Fermín and Brock Burke for a scoreless inning apiece.
“He’s been a godsend for us,” manager Ron Washington said of Strickland. “Whatever role we try to use him in, he’s been superior. We tried to stretch him out today because we was weak in the bullpen and he handled it extremely well, like the pro that he is.”
It’s also worth pointing out that Kenley Jansen is 14 for 14 in save opportunities, and opponents are hitting .196 off him in those situations. He’d recorded saves Friday and Saturday night, and Washington said before the game he wasn’t hesitant to use him for a third game in a row if the situation called for it.
And, in fact, Jansen was warming up in both the eighth, if the Angels had tied it or gone ahead, and in the ninth, in case of extra innings.
The familiar faces of Jansen and Mike Trout are two of those whose billboard-sized portraits adorn the area above the front entrance to Angel Stadium, along with pitcher Yukei Kikuchi. The other visages are those of O’Hoppe, Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, the leaders of a youth movement that has brought its own attitude to this clubhouse.
Consider: Since the beginning of May, they’re 6-3 in one-run games, including Sunday. These guys don’t quit, and they don’t scare.
“Honestly, I was driving to the field and I just thinking, ‘Like, man, we’ve been playing good baseball.’” Anderson said. “You know, sometimes it’s the bottom of our lineup, sometimes it’s the top of the lineup, but we’re getting production from different guys and keeping us in a lot of games and making every game close, even the ones we’ve been losing. It seems like we’ve been in close games and with guys that have a lot of fight, you’ll take that every time.”
And maybe the organization was in help mode when it acquired Lamonte Wade Jr. from the Giants Sunday. That may depend on whether they’re getting the Wade who earned the nickname “Late Night Lamonte” for his late-game heroics for the Giants a couple of years ago, or the Wade who was DFA’d by the Giants after hitting .167 in 50 games this year.
Still too early in the season to judge? Maybe, or maybe not. It’s been a debate dating back to way before the advent of the 162-game schedule: At what point of the season is it no longer early?
“I mean this season is so long, I really can’t even describe the ups and downs and how long it actually is,” O’Hoppe said. “So just take it day by day.”
“Dog days,” a reporter suggested.
“Not yet,” O’Hoppe replied.
For that, check back in August.
jalexander@scng.com