The show must…you know…

Go on!

It will be alright.

How will it?

I don’t know, it’s a mystery. 

Favorite lines from a favorite movie, having nothing whatsoever to do with baseball. And, yet, these are the lines I find running through my ever tangential brain as I contemplate the last remaining days of the regular season.

Three and a half games behind the Rangers, our intrepid Angel heroes head off to AL East to challenge two teams against whom they have had mixed results this season. Meanwhile, the Rangers enter the extremely soft finish to their overall-harder-than-the-Angels’ September schedule, and face off against two teams they have beaten bloody this season. At this point in our story, things look a bit grim for our heroes, statistically speaking, and the promise of three games against the Rangers to end the regular season doesn’t assuage all concerns quite as quickly as it did a few weeks ago…

But that’s just the numbers talking. Statistics and probabilities. The same statistics and probabilities that throughout the season predicted the Angels would be mathematically eliminated or right on the verge of it At this point. So, in the immortal words of Charlie Brown, tell your statistics to shut up. 😉  Somehow, every time they were on the verge of being too far out of the race to come back this season, the Angels have managed to come back. A crucial pitching performance. A dynamite play. A key walk off hit. The reemergence of the offense. How do things keep working out? I don’t know. It’s a mystery. But they do.

Can the Angels still squeeze their way into the post season, even now, either via an AL West title or the Wild Card? Absolutely! But will they? And, if so, how will they manage it? I don’t know. It’s a mystery. At the moment our probable pitchers list after Jered Weaver’s start on Wednesday is Dan Haren, Ervin Santana and then…a big series of questions marks. And that’s one of the mysteries that is key to the post season mystery ending on a cheerful note. Is it back to Jerome Williams and Joel Pineiro? Well, I like the first part of that thought. Will the Angels adopt a sort of three man/short rest rotation for the time being? If so, I sure hope if works better outside of the Texas heat. Make the right decision Sosh, because this is Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change…especially if Pineiro is on the mound and his sinkerball is still hiding underneath the sofa cushions in the clubhouse.

But there are more mysteries within mysteries. I’ve been saying all season that there are two Angels teams that seem to switch uniforms from time to time, the clutch team and the Keystone Cops. So which Angels team is landing in Baltimore? And in Toronto? For that matter which teams will the as-yet-to-be-determined Angels team be facing? The spoiler Orioles and Jays who easily bested the higher ranking Rays and Red Sox this week or the teams the Angeles were able to beat a few times? I certainly hope it’s the latter but I don’t know, it’s…well…you know.

Starting Friday night in Baltimore, the Angels need to go on a longer winning streak than they have been on all season and Texas needs to lose a few games. They Angels may be able to survive another loss or two, but only if Texas is losing as well and it doesn’t cost them anything in the standings. Is this likely? No. But I live for against the odds story book type endings and so, apparently, do the Angels. So, Let’s Go Halos!