Jered Weaver, Mike Trout Help Angels Reduce Magic Number to 4; Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez, Zack Greinke Lead Dodgers Past Giants, 17-0

Players of the Day for Saturday, September 13, 2014

American League

Mike Trout

Jered Weaver

With 14 games left to play in their regular season, the LA Angels have the best record in the majors and are looking squarely at the AL West title and home field throughout their stay in the playoffs.

In Saturday's 5-2 win over Houston, two of the players most responsible for the success of the Angels - and their current 10-game winning streak - provided the keys to victory.

Starter Jered Weaver became the AL's first 17-game winner, allowing one run on four hits over seven innings with 12 strikeouts and one walk, while Mike Trout belted a pair of homers and a double in three at-bats, and drove in two runs, boosting his RBI total to 107, which leads the majors. Trout's two solo homers gave him 34 on the year, tying him for third in the AL with Chicago's Jose Abreu.

The win pushed the Angels' magic number for clinching the division down to four, their lead over the A's remaining at 11 games, as Oakland dropped Seattle 3-2 in 10 innings.

Zack Greinke

The A's remain in line for the first wild card spot, though their lead over Kansas City is just 1/2 game. Seattle fell to 1 1/2 off the pace.

Seeking a sweep of the three-game series and their 11th straight win, the Angels host the Astros, Sunday at 3:35 pm EDT.

National League

Matt Kemp

After being embarrassed, 9-0, in Friday's opener of the three game series in San Francisco, the LA Dodgers calmly slipped the shoe onto the other foot and mashed out 24 hits in a 17-0 slaughter of the Giants on Saturday, re-establishing a two-game lead in the division over their northern California rivals.

Hanley Ramirez

Matt Kemp was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a single, driving in three runs in the rout. Hanley Ramirez went 4-for-5 - a double and three singles - drove in a pair of runs and scored one.

Starting pitcher, Zack Grienke, worked six innings of scoreless ball, allowing four hits without a walk, fanning five, and also went 2-for-3 at the plate with a double, homer, two RBI and two runs.

To say the least, the game was out of hand by the middle of the second inning, when the Dodgers had alredy put eight runs on the scoreboard. Giants' starter, Tim Hudson, worked into the second inning but didn't record an out in that frame, allowing six runs on eight hits.

While the loss was a setback for the Giants in the division race, they managed to keep a four-game edge in the wild card, as Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Atlanta all lost.