Heated Rivals: Rangers vs.

Angels
Update
Little more then a week ago we were looking at the AL West division race and it looked bleak for the
Angels. The Rangers took 3 ot of ! in the head to head series and the Angels narrowl" escaped with a
game ! win. # games ot$ it looked like the Angels were starting to fade into the clods like their
heavenl" namesakes.
After a few balls" moves b" manager %ike &cioscia and some solid offense the Angels won this
weekend's series and moved to within 3 games of the Rangers. ( have to admit ( thoght L.A was going
to fall apart like m" )ardinals$ bt ( was wrong. &cioscia's decision to pt *rvin &antana and +ered
Weaver on 3 da"s rest took gts$ bt it paid off. &antana gave them a win on &atrda" night and Weaver
at least kept them in the game on &nda". ( love when a manager is willing to make what he thinks is
the right decision$ conventional baseball be damned. There are too man" managers and coaches that
aren't willing to stick their necks ot$ bt when the" do and it works it can inspire the whole team. +st
ask &ean ,a"ton.
Heated Rivals is an nderstatement$ it was down right scorching- .o've got to give both teams /and
the Rangers' fans0 a lot of credit for the wa" the" toghed it ot in the sweltering Te1as heat . While all
the wimps on the east coast ran like school girls from a categor" 2 storm$ the Rangers and Angels
dked it ot in the midst of a heat wave that had the on3field temperatre reading 22# degrees at game
time on &nda". ('ve created stronger gsts of wind after eating 3 bean brritos then Hrricane (rene
created on the east coast$ 4st sa"in.
Regardless$ the AL West race is back and better then ever. ( still like the Rangers$ bt it looks like
&cioscia$ Weaver$ and the rest of the L.A gang aren't going 5ietl" after all. We'll have more pdates in
the coming weeks as we follow this race$ as well as the other close division races.