MVN: Most Valuable Network

Enjoy your off day Angels.

You are going to need it. Today, Thursday June 5th marks the second of SIX consecutive Thursdays the Angels have off until July.

So for all of June, Angels fans, take a break on Thursdays. You won't have to worry about the Angels (Now winners of five straight!!) on Thursdays, so take a break, chill out or update your blog. Whatever.

The Angels players - especially the ailing Vlad and Scot Shields - can also take this time to rest and heal up while the rest of the team can take the time off and engage in one of the many cultural activities offered in Oakland.

However, come August and September, off days will be hard to find. The Halos get only three off days in August and those come early in the month. In September, the team only gets two off days.

Essentially, the Angels will have to play 43 games in 45 days to end the season - not the way you want to end your schedule. Especially when the team is usually beat-up and injured to end the season, like last year when the Red Sox faced an Angels team that could have been struck out by Mariah Carey.

But maybe these breaks in June are what the Angels need to do to break out of their offensive slump; although the Angels have finally, finally broken the four-run barrier in their last two games, this is still a team that is not firing on all cylinders.

And the Halos are facing a team not known for giving up runs this weekend in a park not known for giving up runs. If the stagnant Halos offense can take one game this weekend from the A's, I will be content.

Again, I will repeat what I said on the podcast I posted two days ago - it is better to be lucky than good and while the Angels are mixing some parts of luck with some parts good ball, you get the feeling that when the Halos face some better teams, i.e. not the Mariners, some of that luck will start to run out and they won't be able to win with just four or five runs anymore.

Still, Angels fans have to be content with what they have seen so far - despite the injuries, despite losing Kelvim Escobar for most of the season, the Halos sport the best record in the American League and second best in the Majors. But can they keep it up? With some off days now, yes, they can. But with a grind of a schedule in August and September and 43 games in 45 days?

We shall see.