Mike Trout series preview

Not long ago Dodger fans who were lamenting their dreadful season had one solace they could count on, "at least they weren't the Angels". Even that ace card can no longer be played.

The Angels are in the midst of an eight game winning streak after taking four in a row from the Royals while on the road. Propelled by Player of the Week Mike Trout the Angels and the resurgent Josh Hamilton, the Angels have started scoring the runs every one expected.

Remember the classic MVP vote last year between Miguel Cabrera and Trout. Once again they are proving to be the best players in the AL. As you look at fangraphs.com for May you can see two names at the top.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet for a Memorial day weekend

Reasons why the Angels could leave LA with a 10 game winning streak:

1. Dodgers are putting together one of the worst May performances in the Los Angeles franchise
   
2. Angels are hitting and pitching (bullpen still suspect)
3. Mike Trout is on fire
4. The Angels score runs (41 runs past week)
5. The Dodgers don't score runs (22 runs this past week)
6. Zack Grienke pitches against another team he pitched for last year
7. CJ Wilson coming off one of best games as an Angel
8. Baseball gods will see fit to make Joe Blanton a winning pitcher and Zach Grienke a losing pitcher
9. The Angels have a longer winning streak than the Dodgers have won in May. On May 27th! For those who don't want to do that math that is a eight game winning streak versus seven win in May. Seven.

Reasons why the Dodgers could break the Angels Eight Game winning streak:

1. Joe Blanton pitches on Tuesday, even the Dodgers might manage a home run against him (eight allowed in ten starts).
   
2. The Boston trio (Crawford / Punto / Gonzalez) might put up just enough runs
3. Zack Greinke and Ryu should be good for at least one win if one of them can manage to throw a shutout
4. No team with a 200 Million Dollar plus payroll could possibly end May with fewer than 10 wins. The odds say they will stumble into a victory much like they did Saturday.

The Dodgers may be closer to the division lead than the Angels, but make no mistake, one team is headed in the right direction, the other team appears headed for oblivion. Neither team has much of a shot to play in the postseason this year. I'll leave it up to Eric to tell us how many teams have made the postseason since the wild card came into play that won seven games in May. Or eight. Or even nine.

Of course if the Dodgers end the month of May with twelve victories skip the previous paragraph.