Rejoice! It only took until the All-Star break, but the Angels are back in first place. Albeit, they are going into the break atop the AL West by only a half a game, but considering how putrid the offense was for the first couple of months…OK, how putrid the offense was until roughly a week a ago, it is a more than welcome sight to this blogger’s eyes. Of course, the argument could be made that the break is coming at the worst possible time now that the Angels bats are starting to click. But my crystal ball broke last week, and that was the only reference to the future that I trust.
Boxscore Breakdowns:
Game 4: Angels 10 – Mariners 3
Dinger Power
There are 15 teams in the American League. There are five teams in the American League that have at least one hitter with more than 20 home runs. There is only one team that has two players with at least 20 home runs, and they both happened to be tied for the league lead. Mike Trout has flipped the power switch of late, and it was enough to catch Albert Pujols heading into the break. The combo have combined for 52 home runs so far this season. The nearest combination of players on any team in the Major Leagues is the 40 that Todd Frazier and Joey Votto have combined to hit for Cincinnati.
There is one tiny problem though. After Pujols went and had a dance party on the faces of Major League pitchers during June to the tune of a .303/.395/.737 slash line, he has come crashing back to earth with a slash line of .189/.268/.378 in July. Granted, The Angels have played only one-third the amount of games that they played in June, so maybe the old man just needed a break. But, that would mean that he should actually take a break, and appear in the Home Run Derby to go along with his All-Star Game start.
Good Problems to Have… Kind of
I don’t know how much more I can gush over Andrew Heaney without really diving in and devoting 2,000 or so words to him. He lowered his season ERA to 1.32, his season FIP to 2.78 and his pant legs are still hiked up. He has made the Angels decision making paradigm very complicated with the return of Jered Weaver expected to happen after the break. Kind of ironic how Heaney got his chance with the Angels when a Weaver went down, the same way that Jered Weaver got his chance with the big club. Except this time, it is not a Weaver that the Angels don’t have long standing ties with. How the Angels manipulate the roster in the coming days is anyone’s guess. My only hope is that Heaney is still a part of it when Weaver comes back.
Twitter Time
Twitter is not fun when the Angels are losing. It is loads of fun when the Angels are winning. And I am going to go ahead and call the following tweet the “Tweet of the First Half.”
@valdezallen2 @bmags94 @Mar_e_o17 angels heading into all star break like pic.twitter.com/JIQO6GBsHQ
— blitzkreigle (@Blitzkreigle) July 12, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe world is so much more fun when the Angels are winning. So much so that even Vince McMahon can’t help but strut his stuff. //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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