Angels Home Minus a Hitter

The Angels traveled to the East, where so many previous pennant hopes of August and September have gone to die, but this trip they lived to tell about it. They returned to Anaheim early Thursday morning in a position many didn’t expect:

Vertical. Still standing.

OK, one player is barely standing--first baseman Darin Erstad suffered what is believed to be a pulled left hamstring Wednesday night in Cleveland and is expected to be sidelined for at least two weeks.

“He said he heard it pop, and that is a signal to me that he pulled it,” Manager Terry Collins said of Erstad, who was still being evaluated by team physicians Thursday night.

“As we sit here today, the earliest we can count on him is the last week of the season, and hopefully he’ll be ready for the playoffs if we make it.”

But through the doom and gloom, the Angels were able to keep some room between themselves and Texas. They won six of 10 games on their swing through New York, Boston and Cleveland and are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Rangers in the American League West with 22 games to play.

What many termed a make-or-break trip didn’t break the Angels, and the good news for them is they won’t have to face the the Yankees, Red Sox or Indians again until the playoffs, if they make the playoffs.

The Angels open a five-game home stand tonight at Edison Field against Kansas City and Minnesota, two of the four teams with losing records in the American League Central.

The Royals and Twins are a combined 28 games out of first place and provide a nice break from a grueling late-season schedule that still includes five games against Texas, three in Baltimore and three against the always-dangerous and unpredictable Seattle Mariners.

So why is Angel third-base coach Larry Bowa scared about these next five games?

“I would much rather play a team that has everything to lose this time of year,” Bowa said. “Everything we do right now is magnified, and everything they do doesn’t matter. . . . To me, when you play a team that is down in the standings in September, that’s their playoffs, to knock good teams off.”

Some other reasons for concern: The Angels are 4-4 against Kansas City and 5-4 against Minnesota this season, and there was that forgettable stretch, May 23-27, when the Twins and Royals swept four games from the Angels at Edison Field by the combined score of 28-10.

The Royals are also on something of a roll--for them--having won six of their last 10 games, and they have been a dramatically better team on the road (40-31) than at home (24-44).

“The biggest thing [about this past trip] is we were very emotional, we got up as a unit, and when we do that we’re tough to beat,” Erstad said before suffering his injury.

“We run into problems when we’re lulled to sleep when we play teams of a lesser caliber. We get back on our heels a bit. We can’t let that happen. I don’t think we will now because games in September are so important.”

Bowa’s contention is there are no lesser teams in the big leagues.

“You have to respect every team in this game,” he said. “Each guy in this league has talent or he wouldn’t be here. If you take a team lightly, there’s a good chance you’ll get kicked while you’re down.”

The key for the Angels this week will be to convince themselves that a victory over the Royals or Twins in Anaheim is every bit as important as a dramatic win over the Yankees in New York.

“If they have trouble motivating themselves, they should just look at the standings when they get up in the morning,” Bowa said.

“Every game is important right now. A win or loss against Minnesota or Kansas City could mean the difference between going to the playoffs or going home.”

Bowa said there are some telltale signs when a potential playoff team is taking a playing-out-the-string team lightly.

“When a team like that gives you opportunities to win, when they give you more than three outs in an inning or walk two or three guys and you can’t put them away,” Bowa said, “that’s when you get concerned.”

It would help, of course, if the usually placid Angel fans could create more of a playoff atmosphere for this home stand, but in the absence of that, the Angels will have to generate their own intensity.

“When we come to the park every night for the next 22 days, that game becomes the most important game of the season,” Collins said.

“That’s the only way you play September. You better beat teams you’re supposed to beat, because if you look past them to Baltimore and Texas, we’ll be two games back before we know it.”