Angels Strive to Get All A’s

The Dominican with the Russian first name who used to play the American national pastime in a French Canadian baseball wasteland is having fun.

For seven years, Vladimir Guerrero, the Angels’ reigning American League most valuable player, plied his trade in Montreal and never felt the thrill of a pennant race. Now, in his second year in the Southland, Guerrero is again experiencing it. And even with the Angels having been run down and caught by the Oakland Athletics, he’s loving every minute of it.

The A’s playing host to the Angels for a three-game early-August series with an October feel to it beginning tonight only adds to the drama.

“Of course we’re hoping to do a good job up there and get good results,” a smiling Guerrero said. “We still have a lot of time to play in the season, and they’re doing a good job also.”

The A’s are doing more than a good job.

Since May 29, when they went to bed as the last-place team in the AL West and a season-worst 15 games under .500 at 17-32, the A’s have been unconscious.

Riding lights-out pitching and green-but-undeterred youngsters, the A’s are 47-15 since. If they win the division or wild card, they will become only the second team to qualify for the playoffs after being at least 15 games under .500. The 1914 Boston Braves were 16 under and won the NL pennant before sweeping the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series.

Oakland’s run began May 30, when shortstop Bobby Crosby, who went down on opening day because of injured ribs, returned from the disabled list and the A’s came back from three runs down in the eighth inning and defeated Tampa Bay in 11 innings.

“It’s not a surprise,” Guerrero said. “They’re a good team, and they’ve been winning a lot of games. We hope to do the same thing.”

Oakland has been en fuego, on fire, Guerrero acknowledged, saying, “Yes, but we’re hoping to move on and cool them off a bit.”

But it has been the Angels who have been chilling of late.

Since moving a season-best 20 games over .500 at 52-32 on July 6, the Angels are a pedestrian 12-15. The A’s were 41-42 on July 6 and are 23-5 since.

Over the last 30 days, the A’s have an AL-leading 3.10 earned-run average and are batting .285, fifth-best in the league in that span. The Angels have the second-best ERA at 3.49 but are batting .246, next-to-last in the league.

“They can win 40 games in a row; we don’t care,” Angel closer Francisco Rodriguez said. “We have to worry about what we’re doing.”

Having their third baseman (Dallas McPherson), designated hitter (Tim Salmon) and two-thirds of the rotation (right-hander Kelvim Escobar and left-hander Jarrod Washburn) on the disabled list, slumping center fielder Steve Finley benched and first baseman Darin Erstad nursing a sore right hip has not helped matters for the Angels, though Finley and Erstad are expected to play against Oakland.

The Angels have been in first place 119 of 125 days this season and have led the division since June 8, but coughing up the lead has rekindled memories of 1995, when the Angels blew a 13-game lead over Seattle in August before losing a one-game playoff to the Mariners.

This season, the Angels led the A’s by 8 1/2 games July 18, after beating them, 5-2, at Angel Stadium.

Think the Angels don’t have the A’s on their mind? Bartolo Colon admitted to peeking at the scoreboard while pitching against Tampa Bay on Sunday.

In Oakland, John Lackey will start against a team that won its two previous games, against Kansas City, by a combined score of 27-1.

“Pitching wins out in the end, man,” Lackey said. “They’ve been throwing the ball really well.

“It’s definitely a challenge. It’s going to be fun. It’s fun to be involved in big games, and this is definitely going to be a big series.”

Big, but not pivotal, according to Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, who said a sweep would not put an exclamation point on things.

“If you’re putting a lot of focus on what you have to do to beat another club or stop another club, that’s a distraction,” Scioscia said. “We’ve really struggled in some important areas in our game at times this season -- trying to find that offensive chemistry. That’s where our focus has to be.”

Under General Manager Billy Beane, the “Moneyball” A’s embarking on stunning late-season runs has become as predictable as the A’s losing in the playoffs.

The A’s have the best record in baseball after the All-Star break since 2000 with a .661 winning percentage, and in the month of August since 2001, they are winning at a .758 clip.

In August and September 2002, Oakland won a franchise-record 20 consecutive games, and the Angels, on their way to the wild-card berth and World Series title, were busy cobbling together a 19-3 stretch.

But although “Moneyball” might be impressive in late summer, it does not buy much of a killer instinct in October. Since 2000, the A’s are 0-9 in games they could have clinched in division series play.

Still, for the A’s to have jelled so quickly after the off-season departures of pitchers Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, and outfielder Jermaine Dye, has impressed the Angels.

“Yeah,” said Washburn, who is not expected to come off the DL until Saturday at Seattle, “and you also look at it and say, ‘Thank God they’re not good in the first half.’ ”