Angels Avoid Elimination, but Status Is Day to Day

It has been the Angels’ rallying cry for the last week: “Make Monday Matter.” Well, Monday is here, and thanks to Sunday’s 9-2 pummeling of the Texas Rangers before 32,061 at the Ballpark in Arlington, it will have some meaning.

The Angels are 6 1/2 games behind Seattle in the American League West and 5 1/2 games behind Oakland in the wild card with seven games left. They must sweep a four-game series against the A’s beginning tonight in Oakland and a three-game series against the Mariners over the weekend in Anaheim to keep their minuscule playoff hopes alive.

But the Angels, who swept three games from the Rangers and are 6-3 on this 13-game trip, have not been mathematically eliminated--there is no “X” next to their name in the standings--so there is that to cling to. There’s also their pride.

“The one thing I don’t want is anybody partying on my field,” said Mo Vaughn, whose eighth-inning grand slam broke open a 5-2 game. “I’ve never had the joy of partying on someone else’s field--in Boston, we clinched at home--but I’ve seen the Yankees partying on my field, and I didn’t like it.”

Sunday’s game was a walk in the park--literally. The Angels had only five hits but drew 14 walks, a Ranger franchise record for a nine-inning game. Starter Kenny Rogers gave up one hit through five innings and walked a career- high eight.

But the Angels couldn’t hold that shift key down long enough to capitalize, because Vaughn bounced into a double play after Rogers walked the bases loaded in the first, and Garret Anderson managed only a sacrifice fly after Rogers walked the bases loaded in the third.

The score was 2-2 when Darin Erstad stepped to the plate to begin the seventh. It was 3-2 in the blink of an eye, after Erstad smoked reliever Jonathan Johnson’s first pitch on a line over the right-field wall for his 24th homer and 98th run batted in, tying Nomar Garciaparra’s major league record of 98 RBIs from the leadoff spot, set in 1997.

“Oh man, that was a rocket,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You could hang a month’s worth of clothes on that one. That was a rope.”

Troy Glaus followed with a rainmaker, hitting a towering drive over the center-field wall for his league-leading 44th home run and a 4-2 lead.

Adam Kennedy’s pinch-hit double to left, Erstad’s intentional walk and Texas third baseman Mike Lamb’s fielding error made it 5-2 in the eighth, and Vaughn followed Tim Salmon’s fourth walk with his 10th career slam off left- hander Mike Venafro.

That gave Angel right-hander Ramon Ortiz a nice cushion. Ortiz (7-6) gave up two runs on five hits and struck out five, needing only 103 pitches to finish his second complete game of the season.

He gave up a bases-empty home run to Randy Knorr in the third but responded by striking out Kelly Dransfeldt and getting Frank Catalanotto to ground out. After Ruben Sierra’s bloop RBI single in the fourth, Ortiz struck out Scott Sheldon and retired Lamb on a fly ball with two on.

“He gave up a few runs, and then he bears down and gets some big outs,” Scioscia said. “Those are some good signs. For him to maintain his stuff for the whole game is a big plus. These are the types of games we’re looking for from him.”

They’ll need more of the same this week to ward off the X-factor, that nasty letter that means a team is eliminated.

“Regardless of what happens, we’re definitely building some blocks for next year,” Vaughn said. “We’ve had a lot of key injuries and we’ve still competed and played hard all year. That’s the mark of a mentally strong team.”