Posted 3:45 PM by Sean
So what happened? On Friday the 13th, the Angels seemed on their way to getting well - lineup intact, starting pitching coming around, three games over .500 for the first time all year. And then...well, I'm going to resist the temptation to say that everything went wrong, but it looks like it was pretty close. The offense has been anemic, scattering a few hits around but stranding legions of runners on base. The starting pitching, meanwhile, imploded again; yesterday's win over the Dodgers by Kevin Appier was the first time an Angels pitcher not named Ramon Ortiz had won a game since June 10. Subtracting Ortiz, the starters' ERA over the past ten days or so is somewhere in the early ionosphere.

At this point, even the wild card is looking pretty desperate. The Angels will have to catch no fewer than four teams ahead of them - Oakland, Toronto, Boston, and Kansas City - while fighting through a tough division schedule down the stretch.