#Angels Fall Out of Contention in American League West

Well, I'm calling it: Unless the Angels turn things around right now, starting today, and throughout this week, they're done. They're 4 1/2 games out of first place, behind the Houston Astros, and they're three games back in the wild card race. It's dire and depressing, consider how the Angels were the best in baseball before the All-Star break.

The Toronto Blue Jays destroyed the Halos last night in a 15-3 killer rout at Anaheim Stadium. If it'd been a boxing match the ref would have stopped the fight, so says Kevin Baxter at the Los Angeles Times, "Angels' awful August gets no better":

With the Houston Astros threatening to turn the American League West race into a rout, this is probably as good a time as any to assess the Angels’ situation.

Spoiler alert: It’s not a good one.

After Saturday’s 15-3 shellacking by the Toronto Blue Jays, the defending division champions trail Houston by 4 1/2 games, their biggest deficit since July 3. And with Texas beating Detroit earlier in the day, the Angels aren’t even in position to claim a wild-card playoff berth since the Rangers have passed them in both the division standings and in the battle for the second and final consolation invitation to the postseason.

And that left fuses a little short in the Angels dugout. After giving up two hits in a scoreless -- and largely meaningless -- ninth inning, reliever Huston Street lit his, screaming at everything and everyone in the Angel dugout.

“I hate losing. I hate losing like this,” Street said after regaining his composure. ”Sometimes you just have to get in people’s . . . .

“This is frustrating. There needs to be a sense of urgency. Guys need to feel that. And I wanted people to at least hear or feel it. Because it’s time.”

That’s what one brutal month can do to your season -- and your closer’s temper. On July 23, the Angels woke up with a two-game division lead and a record that was 14 games over .500.

On Sunday they woke up in third place for the first time since June, tied for the fewest wins in the league this month and fading faster than Chris Christie’s presidential hopes.

“I’ll be concerned when we’re eliminated,” Street said. “That doesn’t change the fact that you get mad. We’re better than what we’re playing. We’re making silly mistakes, silly errors, silly decisions with the baseball.

“We’re a better baseball team than this. You have to hate to lose. It’s sickening really.”

Saturday’s game was a good CliffsNotes version of how things have gone lately for the Angels, who have endured three separate three-game losing streaks in August.

On the mound, they had rookie left-hander Andrew Heaney, arguably their best starter since the All-Star break. He lasted just 3 1/3 innings, the shortest start of his Angel career.

On one pitch in the third inning to Josh Donaldson, Heaney gave up more runs -- three -- than he had surrendered in nine of his previous 10 starts. And by the time he left the game one out into Toronto’s seven-run fourth inning, he had been tagged for a career-worst eight runs.

That helped the Blue Jays take a 10-0 lead before the Angels had their second hit. Toronto would go on to set season highs for runs and hits (20). If the game had been a title fight, the referee would have stopped it. Not only have Angels been defenseless lately, giving up 32 runs in their last three games, but they’ve been punchless this month as well: Their .213/.272/.344 slashline is the worst in baseball in August.

Manager Mike Scioscia tried to shake the team from its lethargy by shaking up his batting order, moving Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols up one place each and batting David Murphy (seven home runs, 34 runs batted in) cleanup.

But Scioscia admitted it would take more than that to turn around the team.

“We need to just take this one step at a time and get simple with a lot of the things we’re doing. And hopefully get back into our game,” he said.

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