The Angels are still stumbling toward 60 wins, and somehow they’ve managed to leave a mess behind them in the 2026 playoff race.
With nine games left, Los Angeles needs one more victory to reach that number. That’s not exactly a lofty mountain, but it’s been a grind for a roster full of players who are likely to be wearing different uniforms next season.
What makes this late-season drift interesting is how different the Angels looked earlier in the year. Through June 28, they were bad, sure, but not buried.
They were hanging around with teams like the Red Sox, Orioles and Blue Jays, all of whom are now firmly in the postseason picture. The offense wasn’t lighting the world on fire, but it wasn’t a disaster either.
The vibes were basically average, and on June 28 the Angels had won or split five of their previous six series.
Then came the drop-off.
Since June 29, the Angels have won only five of 22 series, and their 23-45 record in that stretch is the second-worst in baseball, ahead of only the Athletics. The lineup has fallen apart in almost every measurable way over that span. Since then, Los Angeles is either last or second-to-last in MLB in batting average (.227), on-base percentage (.297), slugging percentage (.337), isolated power (.110), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.4), runs per game (3.4) and wOBA (.282).
And yet those five series wins have had real weight.
The Angels’ victories in that 22-series stretch came against the Mariners, Red Sox, Astros, Rangers and Cardinals. The Seattle set, played Sept. 14-16, stood out not just because Los Angeles took two of three from a division rival, but because it added another layer of frustration to a Mariners season already in rough shape.
Ryan Johnson delivered another dominant start in that series, and Denzer Guzman led the offense with a team-high five hits. The Angels still have one more trip to Seattle left on the schedule, and that ballpark could be ugly by the time they get there.
Boston felt the sting too. When the Angels arrived at Fenway on Sept. 6, the Red Sox trailed the Yankees by three losses.
By the time the series was over, that gap had grown to five. Boston has a long history of September struggles, and the Angels took advantage in a way that almost certainly slammed the door on the Red Sox’s chance to host a Wild Card series against the Yankees.
Then there’s the AL West picture. The Astros and Rangers are battling for first place, and Los Angeles has quietly helped drag both clubs into a season that has felt far more ordinary than either would have wanted. The Angels are 14-12 against Houston and Texas this year, and nearly a quarter of their wins have come against those two teams alone.
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Christian Moore ended it with a game-winning infield single with the bases loaded in the 11th, the sort of finish that tends to land hardest in a season full of tight margins. The Angels did not just survive a back-and-forth night, they gave themselves a chance to carry it forward, and now the question is whether this can be the kind of win that settles them for more than one evening. [Read more 🡒]