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Red-hot Angels try to move a step closer to AL West title

Sep 13, 2014 - 1:45 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Jered Weaver tries to become the American League's first 17-game winner on Saturday when the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim continue their three-game series with the Houston Astros at Angel Stadium.

Weaver won for the fourth time in five decisions on Monday in Cleveland, as he held the Tribe to three runs and six hits in six innings to run his record to 16-8 to go along with a 3.58 ERA.

Since Garrett Richards went down with a season-ending knee injury, Weaver has responded with four straight quality starts and has pitched to a 2.81 ERA in that span.

Weaver has split four starts against the Astros and has pitched to a 3.38 ERA in those encounters.

The Angels' train continued to roll on Friday, as Kole Calhoun went 3-for-4, drove in a pair of runs and scored three times to power LA to an 11-3 rout.

The Angels have won nine straight and 15 of 17 games overall, with the lone losses coming in a two-game road sweep against the Astros on Sept. 2-3. Their magic number to clinch the AL West is five.

Mike Trout and Howie Kendrick each finished with a pair of hits and two runs batted in, and David Freese homered to back five innings by C.J. Wilson (12-9). The southpaw gave up three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits to improve to 4-1 over his last seven outings.

"Right now, these runs we're scoring is taking pressure off our pitchers," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They cracked the door open for us a little bit and we had good hitting all around. These guys are grinding it out, no doubt about it."

Wilson had 108 pitches through five innings.

"It's never good to throw that many pitches through five innings," Wilson said. "My focus was to throw strikes and get ahead in counts. Our offense has been on a roll."

Heading to the hill for the Astros on Saturday will be righty Scott Feldman, who i s8-10 on the year with a 3.99 ERA. Feldman didn't get a decision versus the Oakland Athletics last Saturday, but pitched well, allowing three runs (2 earned) and seven hits in 8 1/3 innings of his team's 4-3 loss.

Since giving up seven runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings on Aug. 14 at Boston, Feldman has been terrific, going 2-1 with a 2.03 ERA in his past four starts.

Feldman, though, is 5-7 in 24 games (15 starts) against the Halos with a 4.92 ERA.

Los Angeles is 11-6 versus the Astros this season.