The reappearing act is an underrated one.

That is mostly because it is shrouded in disappointment, which is a necessary prerequisite. Without a massive letdown, there is no unexpected burst back onto the scene to stun the masses.

The Los Angeles Angels have both ends covered now.

They started this season as a team coming off a 98-win campaign, the highest total in Major League Baseball in 2014. But the disappointment of being swept out of last year’s playoffs bled into this summer. And the team that seemed most likely to win the American League West severely underachieved and went into September 7.5 games out of first place and 3.5 games back in the race for the second wild-card spot with two clubs ahead of it.

Less than three weeks later, the Angels have reappeared. They swept a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins—one of the teams they were trailing in the wild-card standings—on Saturday to move a game ahead of them and 1.5 behind the Houston Astros for that second berth.

“My group of guys, they’re not going to quit,” manager Mike Scioscia told reporters after the Angels won the first game 4-3 in 12 innings. “They’re going to keep playing hard. Everybody’s upbeat on the bench.”

There is reason to be. This latest pair of victories gives the Angels 11 in their last 17 contests, spanning this month. Before this run they had lost nine of their previous 11 and 26 of 37. They looked like a team simply trying to finish out what had, to that point, become a truly disappointing year.

The Angels had already watched a beef between Scioscia and their general manager, Jerry Dipoto, play out publicly and lead to the theoretical superior quitting on the spot. The losing ways and the fall from relevancy were just more to add to the trash heap.

“It’s one of those times in the season when things go wrong and things kind of pile up on top of each other,” left-hander Hector Santiago told reporters after the Angels lost their 19th game of August, their highest loss total in that month since 1999.

Since then, everything has gone right, and that pile of issues has started tumbling. The rotation has become quite good. Mike Trout is hitting like Trout typically hits. And the Angels are moving up the standings toward where we all figured they would be when this season started.

In the 17 games since the start of the month, when this winning run commenced, the team’s starting pitchers have a 3.62 ERA, second-lowest in the league, and lead all AL rotations with an 80.9 percent strand rate, according to FanGraphs.

Garrett Richards, the team’s ace last season who has failed to live up to the billing this year, gave them one of their best outings of the month in the second game Saturday, throwing 8.2 innings and allowing two runs.

Meanwhile, Trout went into the end of August having hit .194/.336/.290 with a .627 OPS and one home run in the first 27 games of the month. He went 4-for-4 on Aug. 30, a prelude to the damage he would do in September.

Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, Trout was hitting .280/.422/.660 with a 1.082 OPS for the month, which was sixth-highest in the league. His 193 wRC+ was seventh. He had only one hit Saturday against the Twins, but it was a home run, his sixth of the month, which is tied for second-most in the AL in September.

While those numbers seem pedestrian for a guy like Trout, they are far better than they were in the previous month and might be another precursor of what’s to come if the Angels end up in the playoffs.

“Mike does what Mike does, but we need to be more than a one-trick pony,” Scioscia told reporters Thursday (h/t Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times). “If the only thing we have going is what Mike is going to do, it’s not going to happen for us. He’s part of the core of the lineup, but we need nine guys swinging it so we can pressure other teams.”

For too long the Angels were almost all Trout and very little else, which is a big part of the reason they currently sit outside of the playoff picture. And Scioscia is correct in the obvious assessment that if no one else helps, this season will end with the Angels missing the postseason for the fifth time in six years.

The help has come, though, and Trout is mostly back to his normal, incredible self. This team has reappeared. The trick now is keeping itself in plain view.

 

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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