The Angels have a chance to shave another game off the Texas Rangers' lead in the American League West on Sunday when they send ace Jered Weaver to the mound in Arlington, Texas.
Pitching, however, is no longer the Angels' strong suit. During a recent hot spell that has seen them win seven of eight games the Angels have been producing out of the batter's box too, homering in 17 of their last 18 contests -- including five home runs Saturday. In their last seven games, the Angels have batted .339, averaged 7 1/2 runs a game, collected at least 10 hits in each game and are batting .414 with runners in scoring position.
"It feels good," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "You have to be able to pressure teams every inning. You're only able to do that when your offense gets deep. In the last probably two weeks we've gotten deeper. Where at times we were trying to fill nine spots with maybe four guys swinging the bats well, now we've got probably 10 or 11 people on the offensive side, guys that we can get into the lineup.
"And that's a good feeling."
The Angels entered Sunday trailing Texas by two games with 30 games to play.
The lineups:
Angels
CF -- Peter Bourjos
2B -- Howie Kendrick
DH -- Bobby Abreu
RF -- Torii Hunter
1B -- Mark Trumbo
LF -- Vernon Wells
3B -- Alberto Callaspo
SS -- Erick Aybar
C -- Jeff Mathis
P -- Jered Weaver
Texas Rangers
2B -- Ian Kinsler
SS -- Elvis Andrus
CF -- Josh Hamilton
3B -- Michael Young
RF -- Nelson Young
DH -- Mike Napoli
1B -- Mitch Moreland
C -- Yorvit Torrealba
LF -- David Murphy
P -- Colby Lewis
-- Kevin Baxter reporting from Arlington, Texas
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