No Clinching, Only Clenching

The Angels, right now, are like whiny kids in the back seat, impatient for the end of a long trip.

When are we going to get there?

For another day, the champagne bottles were a mirage on the horizon. For the second straight day, with the Angels one victory away from clinching their first playoff berth in 16 years, they lost. The Angels flew to Texas after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners, pondering another two days of waiting instead of celebrating at 35,000 feet.

“We’d all like to get it over with,” infielder Scott Spiezio said.

They almost certainly will, and never mind those hardened Angel fans bracing for another collapse, freaking out about the possibility of another one-game playoff in Seattle. For the Angels to be forced into a wild-card playoff, they would have to lose all six remaining games while the Mariners win all six games or the Boston Red Sox win all seven.

On paper, the Angels should clinch Tuesday, after a day off. They face Texas rookie Joaquin Benoit, making his 13th major league start.

But, on paper, the Angels should have clinched Sunday. They faced Seattle’s Ryan Franklin, making his 11th major league start.

They got six hits off Franklin. Seattle rookie Willie Bloomquist got four by himself--the first four hits of his major league career--driving in two of the Mariners’ runs and scoring the third.

This is not exactly a playoff drive with momentum. The Angels have lost five of seven games on this trip. They have scored more than four runs once. Garret Anderson is hitting .208 on the trip, David Eckstein .207, Troy Glaus .167, Adam Kennedy .150 and Bengie Molina .118.

The sooner the Angels clinch, the better, so they can give the guys playing every day a rest. And, suggested hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, the guys playing every day have hit a wall.

“A lot of the guys are burned out,” Hatcher said. “I think they really need a day off. They’ve busted their butts to get us to this point. This off day is very important.

“They want to get it over with. I know, when I was going through that, I couldn’t sleep. You just want to get it over with.”

The players weren’t so sure that pennant anticipation translated into anxiety, though the Angels produced an uncharacteristically sloppy performance Sunday. Kennedy muffed a ground ball, Spiezio slipped and fell trying to track a ground ball in the shadows, Brad Fullmer was trapped off second base and tagged out after a comebacker, and Jarrod Washburn threw a wild pitch that led to a Seattle run.

“If we were anxious up to this point, it’ll go away now,” Kennedy said. “Maybe we were a little anxious to get it out of the way.”

Said Washburn: “I don’t think we were pressing. The Mariners are a great team.”

Indeed, the Mariners won their 90th game. In the National League, they would be tied with the San Francisco Giants for the wild-card lead. In the American League, they’ll become the second team since the wild-card format was adopted in 1994 to win 90 games and not make the playoffs.

Washburn (18-6) lost despite holding the Mariners to three runs over 6 1/3 innings. With one start left, he must wait until next year to try to become the Angels’ first 20-game winner since Nolan Ryan in 1974.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” Washburn said. “But I don’t care. I just want to get to the playoffs.”

They will, almost certainly, as the wild card. Oakland won again Sunday, so the Angels would have to go 5-1 and the A’s 1-5 for the Angels to win the AL West title.

The Mariners consoled themselves with the fact that the Angels did not clinch here. “Let them do it in Texas,” Mariner Manager Lou Piniella said.

The Angels desperately want to win Tuesday, to jump and hug and scream on the field rather than retreat to the clubhouse television to see whether the Mariners lose to Oakland. It’s a simple task, if not an easy one.

“All we have to do,” Washburn said, “is win one game.”