It’s always quite an intense battle between these two California foes. The Bay Area’s Oakland Athletics taking on SoCal’s Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim in a matchup between the American League West’s top two teams; and the series was every bit as competitive as expected between these intrastate adversaries.
Though the 2014 campaign is just approaching mid-June, there was a September-like atmosphere at Angel Stadium the past few days. The Athletics entered Monday’s opener leading the West, with a 4.5-game lead over the second-place Angels. The Angels, who want to legitimately contend for a division title this year, needed to improve their record against the Athletics. Los Angeles was 11-18 against the West—1-5 versus Oakland—entering the series.
But the Angels took care of business on their home turf, where they are 20-14 this season—the second-best mark in the AL. Los Angeles won two of three against the A’s to cut its deficit to 3.5 games.
It was a hard-fought series on both sides, where every pitch, every play, every baserunning decision seemed to factor into the outcome of each game. The best part is that there are three more series between these two teams in the second half of the season.
But that’s all in the future.
Here are five things learned from the past series between the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels.