Rag-Tag AL West Finds True Form in ‘Race’ for Title

Some people, you just can’t rehabilitate. You can dust them off, prop them up, tell them to just say no, offer encouragement, nod in support when they insist they have kicked the habit . . . and a few weeks later, sure enough, they go rolling off the wagon again.

These people are weak.

These people are incorrigible.

These people play baseball in the American League West.

Remember the odes of May and June, when we had Angels ascending and Rangers maintaining the pace and all four rag-tags playing better than .500?

Oh, the new and improved American League West. Born to lose no longer. Respectable at last. Two teams bound for the playoffs with--who knows?--maybe the Angels outslugging the Indians for their first American League pennant.

At one point, there was actually semi-serious discussion about a flaw in the wild-card playoff format possibly tempting the Angels and the Rangers to tank games in September in order to draw Boston instead of Cleveland in the first round.

Think about that one for a second:

Two American League West teams, presented with an incentive to lose games.

The sport could have been torn asunder, although the Angels and the Rangers vehemently denied that they would ever stoop to such chicanery and soil the integrity of game.

Now, who can tell? The Angels just completed a 1-8 trip through the East, one of the worst trips in franchise history at one of the worst conceivable times, and have lost just half a game in the standings to the Rangers, who are 2-9 in their last 11. Technically, the Angels’ first-place lead was trimmed from 7 1/2 games to six, but that was because the red-hot Seattle Mariners have vaulted over the Rangers into second place.

The Mariners did this by going 5-6 in their last 11.

A whole lot of tanking could be going on . . . or, the American League West is just feeling itself again. One or the other. The Angels are 4-17 since Aug. 14, the Rangers have reeled off streaks of 0-10 and 1-9 since the All-Star break, the Mariners are one game above .500 and in the thick of contention--it’s the same American League West everyone expected in April, just a little tardy.

The team that leads this division by six games is, in its last 21 games:

--Allowing an average of 11.6 hits and 6.5 runs a game.

--Producing an average of 7.9 hits and 3.4 runs a game.

--Batting .238 as a team.

Beyond that, fourth starter (until his last start) Brian Anderson is 0-6 with a 10.86 earned-run average and 12 home runs allowed in his past seven outings; leadoff hitter Tony Phillips is batting .197 since July 30; All-Star outfield selection Jim Edmonds is hitting .188 since straining his back on Aug. 17, with no RBIs since Aug. 25; cleanup man Chili Davis is batting .175 with five RBIs in his last 12 games; J.T. Snow has two RBIs in his last 12 games; Garret Anderson is homerless with two RBIs in his last 15 games; and as a team, the Angels have grounded into 15 double plays in their last dozen games.

Under ordinary circumstances--say, in the American League Central or East--a division leader racking up these kind of numbers in early September would be in code-red full-on panic by this point. So far, Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann has not exhibited any strange behavior--with the possible exception of blaming himself for the slump (for guilty parties, see preceding paragraph) and, maybe, bringing back old, old favorite Rich Monteleone to solidify the middle relief.

(Monteleone, in his first Angel stint, provided the answer to the timeless Angel trivia question: What pitcher cost Cookie Rojas his job? Actually, Monteleone did little more than stand on the mound of the fateful September night in 1988, but when Rojas absent-mindedly visited him on the mound moments after pitching coach Lachemann had, the umpiring crew circled Rojas and Monteleone and forced the pitcher out of the game, in accordance to century-old rules. Rojas was skewered in the newspapers the following morning and Mike Port, duly red-faced, fired the manager within hours.)

No, Lachemann is probably making the smart move by taking the flustered Anderson out of the rotation and going with four starters the rest of the way. Any fewer, however, and the red flag goes up and Lachemann gets a phone call from Gene Mauch.

Finley, Abbott, Finley, Abbott, Finley, Abbott, Finley, Abbott down the stretch only looks good on paper.

Clearly, though, the Angels need a jolt of something different on this homestand to climb out of the sinkhole. Maybe five consecutive games against Minnesota and Chicago will qualify.

Then again, the way this division is going, two more 1-8 runs by the Angels and they’ll win this thing going away.