OC Register: Whicker: Angels’ season was over, but they kept playing

[AngelsWin.com]

• The Los Angeles Angels’ Alex Meyer celebrates with catcher Martin Maldonado after a double play to end the fourth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA on Thursday, June 1, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• The Los Angeles Angels’ Martin Maldonado hits an RBI single in the sixth inning during the Angels’ game against the Chicago White Sox at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Angels’ Andrelton Simmons, left appeals for a safe call after sliding into home plate past the Rays’ Jesus Sucre on a squeeze bunt in the sixth inning during a game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Sunday, July 16, 2017. (Photo by Kyusung Gong, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons helped keep the team from falling out of the American League wild-card race while Mike Trout missed six weeks with a thumb injury. Along with his Gold Glove-caliber defense, Simmons is having a career year at the plate too. (Photo by Kyusung Gong, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Angels bench greet Andrelton Simmons after he scores during a game against the Orioles at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Tuesday, August 8, 2017. (Photo by Kyusung Gong, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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The season did not end Monday morning. The Angels are not the American League’s second wild-card team, at least not yet.

Occupancy is not the law. One-fourth of the schedule lies before them.

“All I know is that the standings are pretty crowded,” said Billy Eppler, the Angels’ general manager. “We’ve got our heads down. All we want to do is win the game we’re playing.”

But somehow the games are worth playing and the scoreboards worth watching. The Angels’ season supposedly ended May 28. Purgatory has been kind.

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May 28 was the Sunday in which the Angels got blown out at Miami and got written off by a baseball world that had never written them in.

Mike Trout tore ligaments in his thumb that day, head-firsting himself into second base. The Angels were 26-27, stuck in the middle of the road with the dead armadillos.

Trout would not play again until July 14. But the stadium was still standing when he returned. The Angels had gone 19-20. Trout must have felt like the teacher who had to leave unexpectedly and returned to find the class had done its homework and dusted the erasers. They were dirty but not buried.

“Cameron Maybin stepped up,” Eppler said. “‘Andrelton Simmons, Kole Calhoun … Eric Young Jr. came up and made a massive contribution. And then our starters and bullpen kept keeping us in games, like they had been doing.

“It wasn’t about one person. But even in 2015, the year before I came, this team’s competitiveness had been very apparent. It’s part of their DNA.”

But you don’t win by treading water. Could the Angels actually put a couple of hot weeks together?

First they had to resist more discouragement. In the last week of July they suffered a 2-4 trip and lost twice on ninth-inning grand slams.

They took a standing 8-count, then won 10 of their next 13, including three late-inning comebacks in a four-game sweep at Seattle last weekend. That’s all it took to get into position as the No. 2 wild card, a half-game ahead of Minnesota as of Monday.

Many are responsible for this, including former commissioner Bud Selig, who invented the wild card and then the second wild card. This creates the illusion that contending teams are actually good ones. But sometimes illusion becomes reality.  Five teams were within 2 1/2 games of the Angels on Monday. All had given up more runs than they’ve scored.

Steve Mantone, the assistant GM, gets a gold star, too, as does scout Brendan Harris. Mantone, scavenging other minor league systems while the Angels get theirs running, found Orioles right-hander Parker Bridwell, who was being turned into a reliever. Harris gave Bridwell a positive write-up, and Bridwell is 7-1 with eight quality starts out of 11, and a 1.168 WHIP.

Reliever Blake Parker, another yard-sale pickup, has an 0.911 WHIP with 66 strikeouts in 52 innings. Yusmeiro Petit has an 0.971 WHIP.

The Angels have the worst offense in the league, at least by OPS. But they’ve gotten some late-game rhythm. Those comeback wins have a way of repeating.

They also have mastered detail. They are ranked second in defensive efficiency by MLB.com. They have 57 errors, second-fewest in the league. Their bullpen WHIP is 1.20, fourth in the league. They’ve given up the second-fewest walks.

And while they have stolen 104 bases in 140 attempts, their opponents only have a 60.7 success rate. Catcher Martin Maldonado is the proximate cause.

“His impact has been tremendous,” Eppler said. “When we got him last winter, we sent him an iPad with all our pitchers’ tendencies. Martin sat down and wrote up scouting reports on each one and sent them back to us. He hadn’t caught any of them, but he was 90 percent right on everything they did. We gave him an A-minus. We had a pretty good feeling after that.”

The Angels might or might not make the playoffs. They should improve. Their injured pitchers are pitching. Andrew Heaney is in Triple-A. Garrett Richards is moving toward September appearances. Andrew Bailey, one of three closer candidates who was hurt, is also making his way.

And there’s Simmons, the team’s MVP so far, and Trout, the reigning league MVP and a tipping point in any game.

And there’s Manager Mike Scioscia, who creates the day-to-day workplace, and now Eppler has given him the speed, defense and pitching he prefers.

Suddenly the Trade Trout and Fire Scioscia factions, who make up the alt-wrong wing of the Angels’ fanbase, have receded into the basement.

The moral: The season will end when it wants. But it’s long enough for your wildest dreams, even the ones you never had.

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