The Los Angeles Angels Can’t Afford Second Half Slip Ups In The AL West

With their 10-5 loss to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Angels find themselves back in a tie for first place of the good ol’ AL West.

If the Angels want to live up to their ultimate potential and surpass the ailing Dodgers then they’ll have to stop playing like their Los Angeles counterparts — by that I mean stop blowing games they need to win.

Of all 30 teams in the league, the last one that the Angels can remotely afford to lose to is the Houston Astros.

Houston is the heated and hated division rival in the AL West that threatens LA’s chance at getting home field in the American League playoffs come late September and October.

And I think we all know how important that’ll be for the Angels coming off of how last postseason ended.

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While yes, home field in baseball may not be the crazy good advantage it is in the NFL, NBA, or NHL but it does help.

Especially if you’re the Angels.

Four of the last six visits to the playoffs since their 2003 World Series win over the San Francisco Giants in seven games have ended in the first round.

The other two times ended in the ALCS.

Being thirsty for another deep playoff run doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling in Anaheim.

Then again, does anything?

If there had to be any year since their win in 2003 to go yard it would be this season.

Chances are they’ll be up  against the New York Yankees in the ALDS with the winner of a Kansas City Royals vs. Wild Card waiting in the ALCS.

And trust me, the Angels would love nothing more than to ruin the chance of the Royals repeating at the American League pennant holders — especially if they can do it in Southern California.

In fact, it’s one more big reason for the Angels to push hard and finish strong to get home field advantage where it counts.

Kansas City was able to literally walk all over them last year, without a single game ending in favor of the Halos.

Who wouldn’t want revenge?

The last thing you want if you’re rooting for the Angels to do well this year or if you’ve been a die-hard fan for as long as you can remember is for the Angels to get embarrassed at home by some Wild Card team that barely scraped into the playoffs.

Doesn’t matter if it’s Kansas City or someone else — they can’t let it happen.

There’s no excuses.

With Albert Pujols and Mike Trout clearly giving it all they possibly can, the Angels need to be sure to capitalize on all the energy being produced and not let it go to waste.

It’d make manager Mike Scioscia just look bad — and ugly isn’t how you want things to end right now.

Bottom Line: Playing for the division has never been more important.

To get to that point in the playoffs though, the Angels are going to have to refocus themselves completely and get in touch with their inner champion.

Because if they can’t hang with the Astros, they won’t be able to hang with a pennant.