A Very Merry May for Angels

Dare to dream? The Angels have mastered the art of the summer playoff flirtation followed by the September collapse, but this year’s team so far appears diversified enough to survive September and challenge for October.

The Angels won again Sunday, a 6-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox, with Jarrod Washburn, Al Levine and Troy Percival teaming on a four-hitter and Darin Erstad and Troy Glaus driving home two runs apiece. That’s 18 victories in 21 games, with the Angels four games out of first place in the American League West and closing fast in the rearview mirror of the Seattle Mariners.

The Angels are 24-17, their best start since 1995. Yes, the Angels coughed up an 11-game lead that year, but lost amid the rubble is the memory of one of the most dominant offenses in franchise history.

“Position by position, that team definitely had more talent,” outfielder Garret Anderson said.

“We just beat people up that year,” coach Joe Maddon said.

Tony Phillips led off and hit 27 home runs. Jim Edmonds batted second and hit 33. Tim Salmon and J.T. Snow had career years, Salmon with 34 home runs and Snow 24. Chili Davis hit 20. Anderson arrived from the minor leagues in June and hit 16. From the ninth spot in the lineup, Gary DiSarcina batted .307.

This team wins in other ways, ways that help ensure the winning can keep going when the homers stop coming. The Angels did not hit a home run Sunday, but a versatile offense and dependable starting pitching carried the day, again.

Erstad had three hits, including a single that became a double on pure hustle. David Eckstein, Glaus and Orlando Palmeiro each stole a base. Eckstein executed a sacrifice bunt and a suicide squeeze, the latter so well he got a single out of it.

“What I like most about this club is our situational hitting prowess,” Maddon said. “Right now, it’s more of an academic approach to baseball. In 1995, that was more brute strength. This is more finesse.”

So, on a day in which cleanup hitter Anderson went 0 for 5, the offense rolled merrily along. The Angels have fewer home runs than any team in the league save the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but they have outscored opponents, 161-65, over the last 21 games.

The success also is testament to a terrific rotation, the foundation of the team as envisioned by Manager Mike Scioscia and General Manager Bill Stoneman. If nothing else, the Angels wanted to take the field each day with a starting pitcher capable of throwing seven innings and keeping the team in the game.

In 1995, the Angels started with Chuck Finley and Mark Langston and added Jim Abbott, but they still challenged for a pennant with Shawn Boskie, Mike Bielecki and Brian Anderson in the rotation, never really finding quality starters behind the big three.

“Since I’ve been here, that’s always been a question mark, until this year,” Anderson said. “We always had Chuck and Mark and you don’t recall who else after that.”

Said Percival: “The biggest difference is in the strength of the pitching staff. The starters are saving the bullpen. You will see a definite difference come September. Our bullpen will be a lot fresher.”

In Kevin Appier, Ramon Ortiz, Aaron Sele, Scott Schoeneweis and Washburn, the Angels believe they have five starters capable of turning in quality innings every time out, the kind of consistency that extends winning streaks and stops losing ones. In this 18-3 run, an Angel starter has reached the sixth inning 20 times in 21 tries.

“This is what was expected of us,” said Washburn, who scattered three hits over seven innings while fighting back stiffness.

The Angels invited a touch of national skepticism by not beating an opposing ace during their run, but they tagged Chicago ace Mark Buerhle for three runs in the first inning en route to another victory. So there.

But as the Angels of ’95 could remind the Angels of ‘02, a nice May counts for nothing.

“The challenge of the season is not to do it for two or three weeks,” Scioscia said, “but to do it for six months.”

The challenge of summer, and of September, awaits these Angels.