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| Trout big part of LA's success. Photo Credit: Kelvin Kuo/USA Today Sports |
The journey back to the top of the AL West for the Angels was completed on Wednesday night as they beat the Mariners and got Texas to defeat Oakland to clinch the AL West title for the first time since 2009.
By: Michael Hanley
This AL West title might be on the sweetest and most gratifying division titles the Angels have won under the watch of manager Mike Scioscia. They had to overcome a slow start to the season, battle some injuries to key positions, especially in the rotation and also had to remake their bullpen on the fly in the middle of the season. Having been through all of that and yet they stand here tonight as division champions just shows you a window into the great confidence this specific ball club has not only in themselves but in one another. It bodes well for them as they ramp up for what they hope is a long and successful ride into and through October.
The biggest piece of adversity you can say this team had to face and overcome was when they witnessed their ace pitcher in Garrett Richards go down in Boston on August 20th with that gruesome leg injury he suffered. That moment could have easily taken the wind out of the Angels sails for not only that game but you could argue for the season. It could have been easy to picture LA go through the rest of the season be a middling team who would for every good stretch of baseball they played would be followed by a bad run of games. They choose not to fold their tents for the season, instead it emboldened them and gave them even more fuel to accomplish the first goal they had in mind: win the AL West.
This would not come easy at first though. Los Angeles had to go through what at the time looked like the best team in all of baseball in their rival, the Oakland A's. The two would play each other seven times in a ten day span in August that for all purposes would decide who would be in the driver's seat to win the AL West. The Angels would lose two of three to Oakland at the Coliseum, which keep the division race very tight.
It would be the four game series in Anaheim that perhaps was the best series they played all season long. Everything was on the line for both teams and the Angels delivered in everyway possible, running the A's out of the stadium during those four games. That four game sweep gave the Angels a five game lead and would allow them to pull away from the A's for good.
Since August 10, LA has gone a MLB best 27-8, a stretch of baseball that has been aided by strong starting rotation pitching on a nightly basis. Weaver has put up another great season with 17 wins and a Matt Shoemaker has been a revelation for the Angels as he has come and delivered 16 wins this season, more than anyone could have dreamed of. The lineup has finally clicked how everyone thought it would a few years ago with the likes of Trout, Pujols, Aybar and company producing on a consistent, high productive mark.
Finally, the bullpen that was remade on the fly this season has been as lockdown of a unit as one could be in the majors. Huston street has taken the closers job and run with it. The bullpen has variety & depth, something that will prove to serve them well as they navigate the postseason waters.
The Angels have had to battle through bad seasons the last couple of years with this same roster of players essentially, this season is when all the talent and great individual players came together and played their roles beautifully. A season of triumph will continue onto see if they can add another World series display case after this postseason.
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