Put a dot in front of the five, and the meaning is unmistakable mediocrity. The number indicates winning percentage, and .500 translates as the same number of losses as wins.
Consternation is especially acute as the All-Star break approaches, the season slightly more than half over, a break in the schedule that invites reflection. And .500 suggests that the sweat, blood and tears expended nightly through April, May, June and into July has the team no better or worse than it started opening day.
After losing to the Dodgers, 11-4, Friday night at Dodger Stadium, the Angels are stuck at that distressing number with one Freeway Series game remaining ahead of the break that will include the All-Star Game on Tuesday, the Home Run Derby on Monday and the Futures Game and Day 1 of the amateur draft Sunday, all of it in Seattle.
The front office dislikes .500 perhaps more than the players, especially as the Aug. 1 trade deadline approaches, because it can result in indecision. A record well above or below even provides marching orders for a general manager to buy or sell at the deadline.
A manager must muster a smile and insist his team is on the verge of a surge, even if it is in the midst of a tailspin. The Angels have lost eight of nine.
“We’ve struggled, obviously, the last week and a half,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “Every team goes through these things. There are ups and downs.
“Everything we want is still right in front of us. We’re going to get Mike [Trout] back.”
Trout had surgery Wednesday to repair a hamate bone fracture on his left wrist and is expected to miss four to eight weeks. Nevin did his best to minimize the blow of losing a three-time American League MVP, saying Trout’s return will feel like a “trade deadline acquisition.”
But he’s not the only hurt Halo. The Angels have 14 players on the injured list, second-most in MLB to the Dodgers’ 15.
And the list doesn’t include third baseman Anthony Rendon, who didn’t start Friday after fouling a ball off his left shin Tuesday. The Angels expect he’ll be healthy when the schedule resumes after the break, and putting him on the IL would sideline him for 10 days.
Meanwhile, they are short-handed while falling back to .500 for the 12th time this season. That’s right, they were 1-1, 5-5, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, 10-10, 11-11, 12-12, 14-14, 22-22 and 30-30.
They are 45-45 and near the bottom of a cluster of teams battling for the three wild-card berths. The Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros head the group, and the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays are also comfortably ahead of the Angels.
Furthermore, the Boston Red Sox are in last place in the AL East but ahead of the Angels in the wild-card race. And after wins Friday, the Seattle Mariners are one game above .500 and the Cleveland Guardians are at .500.
“The next couple weeks [are important] and we’ll see where we are at,” Trout said. “I’ll do whatever I can to get back as fast as I can.”
One Angel enjoyed a respite from worrying about the big picture. Closer Carlos Estévez was named to his first All-Star Game, replacing Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, who has the birth of a child imminent.
“We play this game for a lot of years to get this [All-Star] experience,” said Estévez, who has set a franchise record by converting all 21 save chances to begin the season. “Nevin told us in front of everybody. I had no clue.”
Estévez will have a chance to use the commemorative All-Star glove sent to him by his equipment manufacturer to improve his mood when it appeared he’d been snubbed.
Estévez, 30, spent the first six years of his career with the Colorado Rockies putting up pedestrian numbers. Asked what keyed his turnaround with the Angels, he said, “Honestly, sea level, man. It really rough to pitch in Colorado.”
Sea level is also slang for .500, and the Angels can only hope they can ascend to something akin to mile high rarefied air in the standings even without Trout.