Angels Are Keeping It Shortsighted and Sweet

The Angels insist that Friday’s news of the players’ union setting a strike date for Aug. 30 does not give them a sense of urgency to be in playoff contention when the deadline for baseball’s ninth work stoppage since 1972 arrives.

They say they play with a heightened sense of urgency every game.

Friday night’s game at Edison Field was no different as the Angels jumped on the Cleveland Indians early, then held on for a 5-4 win in front of 41,356.

“This team never thinks that far ahead,” said Angel closer Troy Percival, who picked up his 29th save by striking out the three batters he faced in the ninth. “We think day-to-day we have to win every day.”

In winning their sixth straight game, and eighth in 11, the Angels (73-48) moved 25 games over .500, their best winning percentage since 1995.

The Angels also moved a half-game behind the first-place Seattle Mariners in the American League West while maintaining a 2 1/2-game edge over the Oakland Athletics in the wild-card race.

It all begs the question--with the Angels playing their best ball since the epic collapse of 1995, why would they want to strike?

Angel player representatives Scott Schoeneweis and Jarrod Washburn said the players’ setting a strike date in the midst of such a successful campaign should speak volumes to the fans about how serious the players are in the labor dispute.

“The playoffs don’t come around that often,” Schoeneweis said. “But sometimes you have to separate the good of the whole from the good of our [individual] teams.”

Angel right-hander John Lackey (5-2) was good enough against the Indians. The rookie, making his 10th start, got the win after going seven innings and giving up one run on six hits. He also had two strikeouts and walked one.

“You’re never totally settled,” said Lackey, who has been called up twice from triple-A Salt Lake, the last time on June 28. “But I’m getting comfortable. The guys getting runs early definitely helps. The early runs are big. They’ve been scoring for me lately so I’ve been pitching on the right days.”

Indeed, the Angels had their leadoff batter reach base safely in the first seven innings.

Run-scoring ground outs by Orlando Palmeiro and Garret Anderson in the first inning brought home David Eckstein and Darin Erstad, who was back in the lineup after not starting the previous two games because of a fatigued right leg.

The Angels made it 4-0 in the second when No. 9 hitter Adam Kennedy’s ground-rule double to right field scored Brad Fullmer and Scott Spiezio.

Cleveland scored in the fourth, when Ellis Burks took Lackey deep for a solo home run on a 2-and-2 pitch. It was Burks’ 26th homer of the season.

The Angels got the run back, though, in the bottom of the inning.

Fullmer, who singled to start things, scored on Eckstein’s one-out sacrifice fly to center field.

The Indians made things interesting in the eighth, after Lackey exited, sending seven batters to the plate and scoring three times.

But enter Percival, who was pitching as though he was already in the playoffs.

“He had excellent velocity with his command,” said Angel Manager Mike Scioscia. “When he has that working together, he’s tough.”

Scioscia, a member of the Dodgers’ 1981 World Series championship team, is no stranger to seasons being cut short by labor disputes.

That year, the Dodgers benefited by a split-season strike, qualifying for the playoffs because they led the National League West by a half-game when the strike hit.

Still, Scioscia said he would not manage as though the Angels should be in playoff position when they go to bed Aug. 29.

“We’re not looking at it like that because there are so many more variables that have to come into play to say the season is going to come to an end where the standings are on Aug. 30,” he said. “How long would a strike be? Would you be able to pick up the season and have a meaningful pennant race after that?

“We’re not putting any sense of urgency on it. We’re going to go out here and try to win every game we can as hard as we can. That’s our approach anyway so I don’t know how you alter that.”