Angels look determined in hunt for playoff spot

The Angels’ hunt for red October started fast at the Big A on Tuesday night. And the way it ended, it’s beginning to look like nothing will torpedo this run to the playoffs.

First inning. Two out. Mike Trout doubled. Albert Pujols doubled. David Murphy (a.k.a The Hero) singled. The lead was a quick 2-0, for a team that has struggled all season scoring runs, much less scoring them early.

Fourth inning. Pujols legged out a single, stole second when the Oakland pitcher, Chris Bassitt, assumed he wouldn’t — a fair assumption, since Pujols is slowed by an injury and never was going to be Usain Bolt, anyway. Crazy Legs Pujols scampered to third when Murphy grounded to first and scored on David Freese’s two-out single.

Carlos Perez followed with a single, Johnny Giavotella with a double and Erick Aybar with a triple.

That made it 6-0 at the end of four. Not shocking for many teams, but for this one, it had been the kind of season where, if they loaded the bases, you knew it was safe to head to the refrigerator for a snack.

Then there was the pitching, just what Dr. Mike Scioscia ordered for the night. Through four innings, Nick Tropeano had not only shut down the Athletics on one hit, but had struck out eight. Up in heaven, Cy Young was changing channels to catch some of this.

No question. This is suddenly a new group of crimson-clad baseball players. Point them toward the finish line off in the distance and they become Zenyatta.

Despite high preseason hopes following one in which they won more games than any other team in the bigs, the Angels underachieved. Until now.

They had injuries (a list as long as the one you take to the grocery store), distractions (Josh Hamilton), strange controversy (Hamilton), double vision (Giovatella) and key departures (besides Hamilton, general manager Jerry Dipoto).

Houston, for the last two years the divison doormat, jumped into the lead and held it until the Angels poked their head in front for two weeks in July. Eventually, the Texas Rangers took over and the Angels kind of coasted along, looking up at the Rangers and Astros.

They were never out of touch. They were also never looking like a threat.

Then came September, an 18-8 surge through Tuesday night, and now seven victories in a row. And when the Astros lost in Seattle, the Angels suddenly had a half a game lead for the second AL wild-card spot.

What a turnaround.

When the Angels needed to, come September, they morphed into a football coach’s guts-and-glory pep talk. When the going got tough, the Angels got going.

For awhile, Pujols, Trout, Aybar and Kole Calhoun held down the fort. Then all sorts of crazy things started happening. David Freese, once a World Series hero, came back from a broken wrist and a mediocre season and started hitting like a World Series hero.

Murphy, a left-handed-hitting journeyman who came to the Angels in a trade July 28, made some heroics of his own against the A’s on Monday night, slashing a game-ending single with the bases loaded.

“The walk-off moment is the best in baseball,” Murphy said Tuesday. “In football, it’s always intense. Every play. Every down. We play every day. We build to the walk-off moment.”

Murphy was mobbed by his relatively new teammates, his jersey ripped off, his hair embeded with a sports drink.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I’ve got good shampoo.”

It is unlikely that his celebrating teammates knew exactly how special this Murphy walk-off moment had been. He was sent out to pinch-hit for Chris Iannetta and ended up facing Fernando Abad, only the 25th left-hander he has faced in 380 plate appearances this season.

Then there is Manager Scioscia and his bullpen juggling, helped certainly by pitching coach Mike Butcher.

In the last two weeks, Scioscia lost the heart and soul of his closing corps. Eighth-inning specialist Joe Smith stepped wrong in a hotel lobby and sprained his ankle. Then veteran closer Huston Street suffered a groin strain.

For awhile, it was assumed both would be out for the rest of the season, and certainly for the attempt to catch the Rangers for the division title or the Astros for the second wild-card spot.

Street is indeed gone. But Smith says he’s ready. Actually, the set of his jaw and the smile on his face in the clubhouse before the game said he is really ready.

“It’s not like others [with sprained ankles],” Smith said. “I’ve been in that training room eight hours a day.”

In the interim, Scioscia and Butcher did a patchwork job that would make quilters proud. The likes of Cam Bedrosian, Jose Alvarez, Fernando Salas, Cory Rasmus, Mike Morin and especially Trevor Gott, came in and gnawed away at opposing batters, one out at a time.

“We had to go out there and just put our oars in the water,” Bedrosian said.

Scioscia concurred.

“These kids are just playing their butts off,” he said.

They didn’t have to Tuesday night. Tropeano left with two out in the seventh and 11 strikeouts, tying a season team high. Bedrosian got the last out of the seventh and recent former Dodger Mat Latos finsihed the last two innings. Street and Smith weren’t needed.

Scioscia even had a chance to get most of his junior varsity September call-ups on the field for the ninth inning. Important rest for the big guns.

Murphy had no chance for a second straight night of heroics.

“I’d rather have a seven-run lead,” he said before the game.

Monday’s hero became Tuesday’s prognosticator.

The Angels won, 8-1.