2014 MLB Playoffs: The Fall of the Los Angeles Angels

The best team in baseball.

The Los Angeles Angels proudly held that label for the latter part of the 2014 regular season. After all, they had the best record in the league (98-64), the best offense (first in runs scored) and a well-rounded pitching staff which included before-injury Cy Young candidate Garrett Richards.

Then the playoffs began.

Five days later, the players from the best team in baseball were cleaning out their lockers. Gone. Swept in three games by the Kansas City Royals in the American League Divisional Series.

The Angels collapse can be contributed to many things, but simply put, the ”best team in baseball” failed to show up against the Royals.

Putting the “0” in Offense

Josh Hamilton. Albert Pujols. Mike Trout.

The heart of the Los Angeles order reads like an All-Star team, or the brainchild of a gamer exploiting trade mechanics in the latest iteration of “The Show” on PlayStation.

The trio combined for a .276 average with 74 home runs and 260 RBIs during the regular season. In three postseason games, they went 3-for-37 (.081) with three home runs and four RBIs.

 The decision to include Hamilton in the lineup was troubling to fans of the team. According to the Orange County Register, Hamilton, who was mercilessly booed by the Angel Stadium crowd during Game 2, came into the playoffs after seeing live pitching for just one batting practice session in the previous two weeks.

The 2010 MVP missed 22 of the 23 games leading up to the series with shoulder, rib cage and chest injuries. Hamilton was 0-for-13 against Kansas City pitching, including the final out of the series opener.

"There is no secret Josh is searching for some things in the batter’s box,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said to the Orange County Register prior to the 8-3 series-clinching game 3 loss. “But when he gets it, he gets it for a long time. It’s something our offense needs, that’s for sure."

If not the trio, Los Angeles needed somebody to produce in the lineup. The team combined to hit just .169 (18-for-106) in the series.

Royals’ starting pitchers Yordano Ventura, Jason Vargas and James Shields held the vaunted Angels to just five earned runs through 19 innings. The Kansas City bullpen was even better, enabling a meager run in 12 innings.

"Give them credit, for sure. But offensively, we didn't do our jobs." Trout told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com.

Pitching Plummets

C.J. Wilson was supposed to be part of the solution.

After Los Angeles signed the veteran lefty to a monster deal in late 2011, a five-year contract worth 77.5 million, he was charged with anchoring a staff that already included the likes of ace Jered Weaver.

In the team’s first real shot at a World Series title since the signing, Wilson was more dud than stud.

The 33-year-old was given the early hook in Game 3, charged with three runs while recording just two outs. No starting pitcher has lasted so briefly in a playoff appearance since Rick Ankiel in 2000 against the Mets.

"I like to think, in general, I can give the team a good start even if I have a bad inning," Wilson said to MLB.com. "But in the situation we were in, with our backs against the wall, there's nothing you can do."

Besides Wilson, starters Matt Shoemaker and Weaver pitched admirably, scattering three runs through 13 innings. It was the Los Angeles bullpen that didn’t rise to the occasion.

The Angels made waves when they acquired closer Huston Street from the Padres at the trade deadline. The deal was overshadowed a bit by the blockbuster move for Jon Lester made by the division rival Oakland Athletics. In the end, the Street trade proved the superior deal.

Street made part of a revamped Los Angeles bullpen, which added Jason Grilli from the Pittsburgh Pirates and Joe Thatcher from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Success was instant. According to Wayne Epps Jr. of USA Today, the Angels bullpen ERA dropped from 4.28 to 3.52 in July and ranked in the top three in baseball in almost every meaningful category. The 1.69 ERA was the best month for any Angels bullpen since April 1991.

The bullpen can easily be equated to the roaring second-half success of the team which led to the best record in baseball.

However, it was that same bullpen that couldn’t keep the Royals off the scoreboard.

In the first two games of the series, the bullpen performed well but ultimately let Los Angeles down, surrendering victories in the 11th inning in both contests.

Fernando Salas was tagged with a loss in the series opener when Mike Moustakas cranked a solo homer to begin the 11th frame.

According to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com, Salas wanted to stay down on Moustakas, knowing he's still got power to hit the ball out, but the reliever's 1-1 changeup didn't sink as much as he wanted it to, and it snuck just over the tall fence in right field for the Royals' first hit since the start of the fifth inning.

Kansas took the game 2-1.

The second game was much of the same. This time, Kevin Jepsen fell victim to the long ball when Eric Hosmer connected in the 11th for a two-run shot.

Gregory Bull/ Associated Press

The Royals won 4-1.

 "You're sitting there hoping it doesn't go out, but you really know it's going to happen," Jepsen said to MLB.com. "Your stomach falls."

The Hidden Factor

Destiny is a funny thing in sports. It can often be mistaken for momentum. If that’s the case, no team had greater momentum than the Royals.

Kansas City’s season has been served with a dash of drama. The team’s first playoff game in 29 years, a thunderous 9-8 victory in 12 innings against the Athletics, was one for the ages. The playoff drought was the longest for any team in North American professional sports. Ever.

That Wild Card Game already has been labeled one of the greatest postseason games of all time. The Royals trailed by as much as 7-3, before rallying back to force extra innings. Trailing again by one in the 12th, a two-RBI single by Salvador Perez made Kansas City the happiest place on earth.

"It was absolutely epic," Shields said to the Associated Press after the win. "You don't write a story like that."

Perhaps, that’s what the Angels ultimately were this season—part of another team’s story. It was a force they couldn’t stop.

All the statistics pointed to Los Angeles not only winning, but dominating this series.

According to Richard Justice of MLB.com, the Angels led the league in come-from-behind victories with 31 during the regular season. Of those, 13 were when they trailed by at least two runs.

If there was a team that was destined to win those first two extra-inning bouts, it was Los Angeles. Still, the upstart Royals, the team that was a playoff afterthought just a month ago, prevailed.

There have only been only two teams, since division play started in 1969, that have been swept out of the playoffs after finishing with the best record in baseball, according to STATS. This year’s Angels and the 1980 New York Yankees.

The victor in both instances? The Royals.