A WALKOFF home run like this one by Jose Sori is great, but the Angels need to be more consistent (Angels photo).
In my youth I had a crummy old car that sputtered and stalled at intersections … and sometimes ran as smooth as a gravy sandwich. Was it the carburetor? The air filter? Spark plugs? Water in the gasoline?
But other times, it ran like a champ, like Usian Bolt (remember him?) rolling with a tailwind going downhill.
For example, on May 28, they beat the Tigers 7-1, and then lost to the Rays 8-5. The next day they blew them out 14-3 and then lost 5-2, followed by 9-8 loss to the Rockies (worst in the National League at the time). Next was an 8-2 loss to Colorado, followed by an 11-4 win.\
On Friday, the Halos were blanked 1-0 and then beaten 9-2 by the Dodgers.
The sweep was stopped by a 13-5 win over the World Champs, for gosh shake! So what’s going on? Are the Halos beginning to gather momentum for a summer sprint? So I searched the interwebs. Is there a big winning streak coming?
I found one scientific study that argued that “streaks” in sports don’t actually exist, outside of the influence of random chance. A team with “low ability” is less likely to win against a team of “high ability” and the outcome of the game before or after the previous contest really has no influence, except, perhaps in the case of injuries or illnesses affecting the players available.
The study also discounted the often-lauded influence of “momentum” (‘the Big Mo”), except as a description of outcomes, rather than an explanation of outcomes.
To put it another way, the Angels (or any other losing team) play inconsistently because they don’t have A) a good team and B) the “roll of the dice.”
I don’t know if makes me feel better or worse, but I guess I’m no longer day-dreaming about any second-half surge in Anaheim. But you never know … they might “get lucky.”
P.S. I sold the car and the new one ran a lot better.
