The Los Angeles Angels are playing some of their best baseball of the season, but it still isn't enough to get worked up about.
The Angels still have an embarrassing record of 51-77 entering Friday, Aug. 21, but they are no longer in last place in the American League West.
Los Angeles also jumped up a few spots in the overall Major League Baseball standings, getting out of last place and heading up to No. 28.
Our hosts, Lucas and Bob, chose to look at the bright side despite a lost season, noting that the Angels are finally playing watchable baseball -- most recently highlighted by a series win against the Houston Astros in which the club laid down a 18-3 beatdown in the finale.
Since Aug. 11, the Angels are 6-3 with two series wins, one against the Texas Rangers and the other being the aforementioned three-game set against the Astros.
The question remains, though, can this team wreak havoc in the AL?
Bob takes a glass-half-full approach and thinks the Angels could somehow be a spoiler in some other clubs' quest for the postseason.
The American League West is one of MLB's worst divisions, as the Astros lead Los Angeles by 13 games but still sit at .500, with a 64-64 record entering Friday.
Our hosts attribute this recent success to left-hander Reid Detmers, who tossed eight scoreless innings on Saturday, Aug. 15, en route to a win against Texas . Also, shortstop Zach Neto was 5-for-6 in Thursday night's blowout of Houston.
Interestingly enough, both Detmers and Neto were widely expected to be traded ahead of this year's trade deadline, but the Angels wound up keeping them in Anaheim.
It's not absurd to say that things have been going in Los Angeles' favor as of late, but the question remains on how long they can sustain this success.
Looking at the season as a whole, it's one that the Angels would like to forget -- even with this stretch of stringing together wins.
What remains to be seen, though, is whether Los Angeles can stay in the AL West race. With how poorly every other team in the division is playing this season, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Angels can ruin a few teams' postseason aspirations.
Regardless, the Angels are not looking like a team that will play in October, but they might be able to work their way up the AL West rankings.
