There Is Talk of Magic Around the Clubhouse

The words “magic number” were uttered, and Chuck Finley did not jump up from his chair and object. The Angels may consider it a breach of baseball etiquette to start talking about a magic number now, but they are confident enough not to discourage you from doing so.

“I’ve got a good feeling we’re going to end up doing this,” Finley said.

“This” would be winning the American League West, a first in Anaheim since Finley’s rookie season of 1986. After Finley and Shigetoshi Hasegawa combined on a three-hit shutout in a 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals Sunday, the Angels gathered around several clubhouse televisions to hoot and holler as the Minnesota Twins closed out a 6-5 victory over the Texas Rangers.

The magic number is 17, the number of combined Angel victories and Ranger defeats that would secure a division championship in Anaheim. The Angels extended their AL West lead to 3 1/2 games with 19 to play.

The pennant will be won or lost, presumably, in the five games left against the Rangers. The Angels play the first two of those games in a series at Texas next Wednesday and Thursday. “The bigger the lead we can get before we play them, maybe they’ll have to sweep us,” Finley said.

Whether success breeds confidence or vice versa, the Angels discovered an abundance of both on their East Coast trip, invading probable playoff towns in New York, Boston and Cleveland without losing a series. The Angels won three of five games from the supposedly invincible Yankees--the first round of the playoffs is best-of-five, you know--and the Yankees eked out one of their victories in the bottom of the ninth and the other in extra innings.

“This team just grew up,” Finley said. “I think guys realized what was at stake and realized we could play with those guys. I felt this team grew by leaps and bounds on that road trip.”

If you define a championship team as one that finds a way to win, the Angels fit that description over the weekend. The Angels scored eight runs in the three games against the Royals, and yet won two.

The Angels scored two runs Saturday, both in one inning, on four singles, two of them bunts. They won.

The Angels scored three runs Sunday, all in the first inning, all on a bases-loaded single by Garret Anderson. They won.

“It’s easy to roll over people,” Anderson said. “When you go through games where you’re finding every little way to win, it develops a little character. In the playoffs, you won’t be unfamiliar with those types of games.”

The Angels rank in the bottom half of the league in runs scored, home runs, walks and stolen bases. No team, however, has won more one-run games (24).

The Angels (79-64) also have won 13 games when they scored three or fewer runs, 14 in their final at-bat and 41 coming from behind.

“Our style of baseball tends to be more consistent over the season,” Finley said. “Texas has scored, I’d probably guess, 100 more runs than we have [pretty close, 113 is the number]. But they rely more on banging the ball out of the park. We’ve shown we can win the close games.”

The Rangers feature Juan Gonzalez and his 40 home runs. Tim Salmon leads the Angels with 24, with Sunday’s starting lineup combining for 73.

“Nobody’s having a tremendous year on the Yankees, either,” Anderson said. “Collectively, they’re handling people. It’s more dangerous to have to worry about one through nine than about pitching around four people in a lineup.”