Angels Are Feeling Shift in Momentum

Mo Vaughn was practically bobbing and weaving, so pumped was the Angel first baseman before Saturday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies.

While his teammates were glued to the clubhouse television, watching the U.S. women’s soccer team win the World Cup final, Vaughn was caught up in another wave of emotion--his own.

“I can tell when a team is coming together, and this team is,” Vaughn said, rocking back and forth, adding a little rhythm to his rhetoric.

“It takes a few months, but we’re developing a personality. We’re starting to walk into the clubhouse with a feeling that we’re going to kick someone’s. . . . Earlier, it was like, no one was really sure. Now we are.”

Vaughn was supposed to be many things to the Angels this season: clubhouse leader, clutch performer, run producer, slugger. But prophet? You can add that one to the list after the Angels’ 9-3 interleague victory over the Rockies Saturday night before 48,069 in Coors Field.

The Angels’ fourth consecutive victory and sixth win in their last eight games moved them to within 6 1/2 games of the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West, and with one game left before the All-Star break, the Angels (41-44) are within three wins of that elusive .500 level.

Omar Olivares followed his complete-game victory over Oakland last Sunday with a masterful eight-inning, six-hit, three-run performance, improving to 8-6. After the Rockies took a 3-2 lead with a three-run third, the Angels countered with four in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth.

A team that would have had trouble scoring on a Little League field for most of June is batting .371 (53 for 143) with seven home runs, 12 doubles, two triples and 36 runs in the past four games.

“You can get certain vibes, certain feelings, that you’re ready to make things happen,” Vaughn said afterward. “It doesn’t happen right away, but once it does, you don’t lose it. And if you have it for the rest of this season, it will carry over into spring training next year.”

Catcher Matt Walbeck, whose two-run triple keyed the fourth-inning rally, is feeling the same vibes.

“We’re definitely more confident as a team,” he said. “Guys are a little more relaxed, they’re not afraid to make mistakes, we’re being more patient and getting better pitches to hit. It’s contagious when you hit well. Unfortunately, when you’re not hitting well, that can be contagious too.”

If only the rest of the Angel rotation could catch what Olivares has. The right-hander, who was released by the Rockies in 1995, came through with his 11th quality start (six innings or more, three earned runs or fewer) in 17 games this season and lowered his earned-run average to 3.28.

With the exception of his string of nine consecutive balls in the first inning, as he struggled to adjust from the bullpen mound to the one on the field, Olivares was around the plate and ahead of batters all night. He allowed no runs and only two hits after the third inning.

The sinker-ball specialist who has added a nifty cut fastball this season has given up four earned runs or more in only four starts, earning a reputation as the Angels’ most consistent starter.

“I always knew he could pitch, but he’s pitched about as well this season as I’ve ever seen him, and I’ve seen him pitch for a long, long time,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said.

“He’s more comfortable because he’s pitching on a more consistent basis. He’s not bouncing back and forth between the rotation and bullpen, and he’s taken off with that.”

A little run support doesn’t hurt, either. Garret Anderson had three hits, including his second homer of the series and 13th of the season in the second inning; Troy Glaus had two hits, including a two-run homer in the fifth--his third of the series and 13th of the season--and Darin Erstad had three hits and scored a run.

Walbeck had the game’s key hit, following Glaus’ leadoff single in the fourth and Orlando Palmeiro’s walk with a two-run triple to right that gave the Angels a 4-3 lead.

Walbeck said the thought of bunting in that situation “entered my mind.”

It never entered Collins’ mind. “Not in this park,” he said. “If we did that, we’d be playing for one run.”

And the way the Angels are hitting now, why stop at one?