Angels lose; look to Wild Card race

ANAHEIM, CA After Thursday's potential soul-crushing loss in Toronto, it would have been understandable if the Angels were a little depressed as they got ready to take on Oakland in a weekend series at the Big A. They're done in the West; and they have only a slight hope of making the playoffs. Even though they're named the Angels, it doesn't look like divine intervention is on the horizon. They were beaten 3-1 by the A's in the first game of the series and were officially eliminated from the AL West race. The Rangers have now won the division for the last two years, and the Angels only way into the postseason is to sneak past Boston and Tampa Bay in pursuit of the Wild Card. The Red Sox lead the Halos by three-and-a-half games and the Rays by two-and-a-half. Jered Weaver was looking for his 19th win of the season, but gave up a leadoff homer to Jemile Weeks and a ninth inning shot to David DeJesus. The winning run scored in the eighth as Maicer Izturis booted a grounder by Weeks, scoring Kurt Suzuki. Gio Gonzalez (15-12) was the winner; Weaver (18-9) lost, and with it a shot at a 20-win season. The Angel bats let them down again, Torii Hunter's 22nd homer in the 7th inning being the only run scored. But if you're looking for a letdown or nervousness as a reason for another inept offensive performance, don't look to hard. Before the game, it was a loose bunch wearing the home unis. Hank Conger was kidding Russell Branyan about a blast that exploded when it hit the top of the wall and bounced back on the field. "Man, Russ, I can't believe that didn't make it over. I thought you were stronger than that," Conger said with a laugh. Branyan turned and flashed a mock dirty look, then joined the laughter himself. If the Angels are down or nervous, you'd never know it by their demeanor, which is just how manager Mike Scioscia wants it. No team meetings, no panic. Just prepare for another baseball game. "And that's all it is right now another baseball game," Scioscia said in the Angels' third base dugout. "If you start having meetings and doing things out of the ordinary, you risk these guys getting tight. It's not a message you want to convey to your team. "I think we play our best when we (approach) it the same way we do every game, whether it's spring training, regular season, playoffs or World Series. It's a baseball game, and a player has to go out there with that freedom to think about making plays and not worry about making mistakes. "When we get to that (point), that's when we play our best, and that's what we're hoping to do in these last games." Scioscia has been known to pull a player off the field during spring drills if he's not showing enough intensity, and insists it's no different in the heat of a pennant race. "Sometimes in spring training, a player won't bring the kind of focus needed to play in the game. If they do that in the spring games, they can carry it over to the games that count. We make sure that everyone is ready to go from the first time we take the field in Tempe (Arizona, the Angels spring training home) and make sure they do the same in every game we play. "This isn't a game like football or basketball where adrenalin works in your favor. You want to play with the same controlled effort and focus all the time." Scioscia, who won his 1,000th career game earlier this season, feels his team is in the right frame of mind as they face the A's. He just wishes they were in a better position in the standings. "Well, we'd like to be in a better situation as far as being able to control our own destiny. We're not there right now, and we know that anything we do now in the Wild Card race is going to have to be with the help of other clubs. "We just have to make sure if we do get the help from other teams, that we don't let things slip away against Oakland this weekend." "We have to come back out tomorrow and start winning. That's all we can do."