The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are heating up with their backs against the wall, completing a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners on Sunday to bring their win streak to five games.
Entering the final week of the season, the Angels are 8-2 in their last 10 games played and currently are a half-game behind the Houston Astros for the second available American League Wild Card spot. Additionally, the Angels are five games back of the New York Yankees, who are currently holding down the first AL Wild Card position, which awards home-field advantage in the do-or-die Wild Card Game.
It’s obviously crunch time for Los Angeles, who have seven games remaining on the regular season schedule to make up their half-game deficit. Tonight, they begin a critical three-game series at home against the worst team in the American League, the Oakland Athletics, before playing a four-game series on the road against the division-leading Texas Rangers, whom they can mathematically still catch for first-place. The Angels, Rangers and Astros are all separated by three games.
The final home series of the season at Angel Stadium of Anaheim has cheaper secondary market ticket prices than the road series against the Rangers. The most expensive Angels tickets at home is the series finale with the Athletics on September 30, having an average ticket price of $34 and a get-in price of $4. The three-game average at home is $32, cheaper than the four-game average in Texas, which is significantly higher at $67.42, and understandably so with such heavy playoff implications on the line in that final series of the campaign.
The Angels’ season continuing will most likely come down to that final showdown in Texas. Hipmunk.com has deals on Dallas flights and offer a Dallas city hotel guide for diehard fans looking to take in the most important baseball of the season in person. Without question, their postseason fate will come down to this final series.
Angels fans can view the final series with Texas with two different mindsets. On one hand, if the Angels pull off a sweep of the last-place Athletics, coinciding with the Rangers potentially losing at least a game or two in their upcoming series against the Detroit Tigers, then a late-season steal of the division title is in play. On the other hand, if the Angels slip a bit and the Rangers continue to win, en route to possibly securing the division before the weekend, perhaps Texas will sit some of their star players, which would bode well for the Angels trying to nab the second Wild Card spot from Houston.
In either case, the Angels virtually control their own destiny for their chances at the postseason and it starts with taking care of business at home against the worst team in the American League.
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