After up-and-down season, Angels face next hurdle -- beating Red Sox

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Goodbye, Rangers. Thanks for playing.

The Angels uncorked their third consecutive AL West title Monday night by icing Texas 11-0, then moving on to the champagne portion of their evening. It was quick, it was decisive, and, well, you know what this means.

Ervin Santana, who began the season on the DL, takes a moment after wrapping up his clinching gem to remember Nick Adenhart. (Getty Images)

Another October rendezvous with the Red Sox.

Noooooooooooo!

Not that they've come to drool over these annual playoff fish fries in New England, but word has it that Legal Seafood already has added an "Angel Fish Special" to the menu at each of its Boston locations. Baked, fried, broiled, blackened ... your choice.

The Red Sox have hooked the Angels in the divisional playoffs for two years running, and in three of the past five seasons.

They've won laughers, squeakers and heartbreakers. They've won in Southern California and in Fenway; here, there, everywhere, as if the whole thing was authored by Dr. Seuss. They've won when they were supposed to and they won last year when they weren't, after the Angels had taken eight of nine regular-season matchups and added Mark Teixeira to their lineup.

So why, oh why, should anybody expect anything different this fall?

"It's in the past," Angels outfielder Bobby Abreu said, drenched to the bone in his gray "2009 AL West Champions" T-shirt. "And this series is in the present."

"It's going to be a different scene now," Torii Hunter promised. "I have a lot of respect for Boston. But I think it's different. I think we're a different ballclub. We're playing to win.

"We have a different energy. I wouldn't bank on the past."

Years of both frustration and exasperation crystallized for the Angels two weeks ago in Fenway when they lost the middle of a three-game set, a game in which Boston came back, the umpires appeared swayed by Fenway and Scioscia delivered this gem following Nick Green's game-winning hit: "What was the count in the end, 3-4 to Green?"

It was only the latest chapter of the Angels, Green Monster Mashed.

"We've played them tough and they've gotten the breaks every time," leadoff man Chone Figgins said. "Hopefully, it's our turn to get the breaks. It's always been a good matchup, but it's a new year and it's our turn to come and play this time."

The Angels now have won five AL West titles in six seasons, and they're now the first AL West team to win three consecutive titles since the 1988-90 Oakland A's. In doing so, they outlasted the most promising club Texas has put together since 1999 and, for that, the Rangers -- from president Nolan Ryan to general manager Jon Daniels to field manager Ron Washington and the players to dozens of scouts -- deserve loads of credit.

A word about these Rangers, who surely, as they watched the Angels leap out of their dugout in celebration Monday night following Ian Kinsler's ground ball in the ninth, did so while picturing themselves in this position a year from now: They're coming fast, and the other three clubs in this division know it.

Michael Young is a pro's pro, rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus is a gem and, in Scott Feldman, Tommy Hunter, Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz and others, they've got young arms that have added a layer of urgency in the other three AL West ports.

It is the Angels, though, who continue to set the standard.

And strangely, that's even more evident now than it was last year when they ripped through the division and clinched a full three weeks before the regular season ended.

This was a team that was knocked off balance early and really didn't find its footing until roughly three months into the season.

Starters John Lackey and Ervin Santana opened the season on the disabled list. Top prospect Nick Adenhart was tragically killed in an automobile accident during the season's first week.

Holding together a team that was broken in both body and in spirit, Mike Scioscia has never been better. This by far has been his best job of managing, and that's no small achievement given the 2002 World Series championship and, now, five division titles in six years.

"We battled a couple of years in '04 and '05, but I don't know if anything was more challenging than this year," Scioscia said, clutching a champagne bottle and a smile.

The Angels have used 14 different starting pitchers this season, just three short of the club record 17 set in 1967.

They've used 25 pitchers overall, most since Scioscia became manager in 2000.

There was a time in July when both Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero were on the disabled list together.

And yet, the Angels now have occupied first place in the AL West for 81 consecutive days.

Yes, under owner Arte Moreno, they continue to maintain the division's highest payroll, and their $113 million ranks sixth in the majors.

But the road to October is filled with examples that it isn't always how much you spend, but how wisely you spend and what kind of folks you've got in place to oversee it. The Mets and Cubs each maintained a higher payroll than the Angels in 2009, and look at what happened to them (we'll wait here until you get back, because it'll be a long search).

Scioscia expertly used his entire roster, plus several minor league recalls, mixing and matching and pushing and prodding. And here in late September, do you know whom Figgins, AL leader in runs scored and walks, mentions as keys?

Pitchers Matt Palmer and Shane Loux, that's who.

"They were a couple of guys who were huge in the beginning until our starters came back to full strength," Figgins says.

It wasn't until July, with Lackey and Santana having eased their way back, that the slow-starting Angels really took off for good.

"In Minnesota in July, we pitched well because our pitchers were finally coming back and we finally had our hitting and pitching at the same time," Figgins said.

The Angels demolished the Twins in the Metrodome during that series by a combined score of 35-15, and they really gained momentum. They won 15 of 20 during that stretch and, one night in Cleveland two weeks later, hitting coach Mickey Hatcher looked up at the scoreboard and all nine batters in the Angels lineup were hitting .300 or better. He had someone take a picture of that scoreboard.

Now, only the Yankees have scored more runs than the Angels in the majors this season, and the Angels' 46 comeback victories rank second in the majors as well (also to the Yankees). First baseman Kendry Morales has become a breakout star.

But what has been the best news for the Angels with October near has been the way the most inconsistent pitching staff in Scioscia's 10 years at the helm has gotten healthy, settled in and developed into one of his best.

Joe Saunders, an All-Star last year who struggled badly early in 2009, now is 6-0 with a 2.44 ERA in seven starts since returning from the disabled list. Scott Kazmir, acquired from Tampa Bay, is 1-2 in five starts with the Angels but has posted a 2.22 ERA.

Over their past 27 games, Angels starters have posted a 2.60 ERA, and they've pitched six or more innings in 22 of their past 26.

It's been a grind, it's been a process, and this year above any, it hasn't come without serious blood, sweat and, yes, tears. But the Angels are winners, again.

"My personal feeling is, Mike has been good every year he's been here," Hatcher said. "He has a way of knowing when to bring a team together, when to talk to a team, when to talk to a player one on one."

After the Angels' second-half momentum was interrupted by five losses in seven games to the Red Sox and Yankees over the past two weeks, Scioscia gathered the troops last Friday and told them to relax, that they were OK.

"He challenged a few more guys to put a smile on their face," Hatcher said.

As most great managers do, Scioscia had picked a team-leader target as he challenged some of his players to smile more. As he spoke, he looked over at the usually effervescent Hunter. Message delivered.

And Monday night, as 40,484 stood and hollered as Santana put the wraps on a sparkling shutout, and then as the champagne sprayed, there were bouquets of smiles everywhere you looked.

Now, the trick will be to prevent Boston from wiping those smiles clear away. Again.

"I wouldn't bank on the past," Hunter was saying. "Last year, we clinched early, on Sept. 10. This year it took us all the way to Sept. 28. You can lose that momentum when you clinch early.

"We have momentum now, and I think we'll keep it."