Our first baseman is better than theirs.

It's a good thing, beating the Yankees, and even better when our one bagger goes far and beyond the one that we let prance off to New York. Take it! The Angels brought the heat at home against the AL East's top team with a 5-2 win that kept NYY just barely out of the playoffs and pulled the Angels magic number to 6.

The Halos have won five straight games at home against the Yankees, and boosted their record to 18-5 since 2005 at the Stadium against the Pinstripes. In the latest edition, it was Joe Saunders coming out and pitching very well against Andy Pettitte and New York. Big Joe was fantastic through six innings, shutting out the best the AL East has to offer, and ended with 8.3 innings of 2 run ball. He allowed 7 hits, but gave up zero free passes and punched out three. It was a modestly solid 8.3 innings of work for Big Joe Saundo that wasn't going to turn any Cy Young voters, bit it definitely got the job done. Saunders pitched into the ninth, but the game was finished by 0.67 innings of Brian Fuentes hurling for his 44th save of the year. That's right, Tito still leads the MLB in saves (+1 on Joe Nathan). Saunders, meanwhile, is now at 14-7, and is getting hot as we march toward the playoffs (7-3 over his last 10).

The Red Hat offense was solid with 5 runs on 9 hits, with Big Vlad Guerrero leading the way (2 for 4 with 1 RBI and 2 runs). VAG started the boys off with a RBI double in the top frame, got doubled in by Torii in the same inning, and even came around to score late in the eighth thanks to Good Ol' JR. Guerrero was the only Angel to have a multi-hit game, but honorable mention has to go to Figgins (1 for 3, 1 BB) and Kendry Morales (a pinch hit jack in the seventh). Howie Kendrick was the only Angel starter to go without a hit in the match, finishing 0 for 4 (still hitting .298 for the season). I'd like to shine the spotlight on the battle between Bam Bam Morales and Mark "My Wife Forced Me To" Teixeira.

BA: Kendry (.300) vs. Teixeira (.293)

HR: Teixeira (37) vs. Kendry (31)

OPS: Teixeira (.951) vs. Kendry (.904)

XBH: Teixeira (82) vs. Kendry (74)

Salary: Morales ($1.1 million) vs. Teixeira ($20.625 million).

With stats that close, we win.

The win puts the Angels at 90-60 for the year, holding a 7.5 game lead on Texas with just 12 games to go. Just 12 games to go!!! Seattle is 11.5 back, and the A's trail by 19. According to ESPN, the Halos magic number to clinch another AL West Championship is just 6 (the combination of Angels win and Rangers losses, of course). Tonight, it's Ervin Santana (7-8, 5.50) taking on Chad Gaudin (5-10, 4.71). Gaudin is a NOLA native, and he's been humming along a little better than his stats indicate. The Yanks are 6-2 in his 8 starts since coming over from San Diego, despite him not earning a decision. Meanwhile, Ervin hasn't been getting amazing results lately. The Halos are 1-4 in his last 5 starts, after ripping off 5 wins in his previous 5 starts before this nasty stretch. El Rosario is going to have to get hot before the playoffs if he has any hope of being in the starting rotation, in my opinion.

Update: After 3.5 innings, the Angels trail 0-4 thanks to A-Rod and Jorge Posada homers (and a BS catcher's interference call ) in the third. Can my boys come back? In other news, the A's lead the Rangers 3-0 through 5.

Go keep up on the NHL preseason at the LSF Twitter page, puck heads.