9 days gone in 3

In one brief weekend, the Angels erased all of the good work they'd done over the last week and half, dropping the three games to .500 that it had taken them nine games to earn. Even worse, really, since the sweeep came against a division rival, all while the Rangers and especially the A's were making time against actual good teams. So really, two weeks of work were undone in less than 48 hours.

There's something that this team just doesn't have. They score a ton of runs when the pitching is good. They can't win close games. They have a bad habit of letting the first few innings of a game dictate the outcome. They either score early and quit, or they give up runs early and quit. They refuse to play anything resembling a major league caliber defense. Their pitchers refuse to throw strikes when they get ahead in counts. They're simply not very good. As enjoyable as they've been to watch over the previous 15 games, their series wins were hollow. You don't get back into a race by winning two of three over an extended period, precisely because one bad stretch wipes out weeks worth of effort, as they've just shown.

Tonight they start a four game stretch again quite possibly the worst team in forty years. If they split this series, it will be one of the most embarrassing moments of the last six or seven years. And while some of us have been convinced for a while that the Angels are done, almost anything short of a sweep will probably convince others as well.

It's gonna be a long, boring summer from here on out folks.