ANAHEIM, Calif. Craig Biggio Jersey . -- Even after a late flight home from Texas led into an early three-run deficit, the Los Angeles Angels incredible late-season offensive barrage still wouldnt stop. David Freese hit a two-run homer and Mike Trout had an RBI triple during Los Angeles seven-run fifth inning, and the Angels beat the Houston Astros 11-3 Friday night for their ninth consecutive victory. Kole Calhoun had a tiebreaking, two-run single in the fifth for the major league-leading Angels (92-55), who began their final homestand by reducing their magic number to five for their first AL West title since 2009. They lead spiraling Oakland, which lost 4-2 in Seattle, by 11 games with 15 to play. "Were just playing good baseball," said Calhoun, who had his 12th three-hit game of the season. "Confidence is huge, and it just seems like were all playing together. Theres never a panic mode. Its been fun coming to the yard every day." Trout had an RBI double in the fourth and Howie Kendrick added a two-run double in the sixth for Los Angeles. The Angels have won 15 of 17 overall, highlighted by their longest winning streak since August 2004. After a slow start in their first game back from a 10-day, four-city road trip, the Angels obliterated Houstons early 3-0 lead with another eye-popping night from the majors most productive offence. Los Angeles has scored at least seven runs in eight consecutive games, matching the 1979 franchise record. "Its certainly a good time for it," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They cracked the door open for us a little bit, and then (we got) just some key hits all the way around." The Angels scored 70 runs during their eight-game road streak, and they increased that crazy offensive pace in their return to the Big A, trouncing the only team that has beaten them since Aug. 25. The Astros took two straight from Los Angeles early last week. Brett Oberholtzer (5-11) couldnt get through the fifth for the Astros, who had won eight of 10. "Theyre a good team, and theyre on a roll," Houston interim manager Tom Lawless said. "Theres no doubt about that. So if we dont play a clean game ... we made a miscue here, we made a miscue there, and they just took advantage of it. Thats what good teams do." The Angels had seven hits in the fifth, scoring their first run of the inning when Jake Marisnick dropped Collin Cowgills fly ball in right for an error. Calhoun, Trout and Albert Pujols all drove in runs before Freeses eighth homer, his second in 42 games. "I just missed it," Marisnick said. "I just dropped it. The ball has got to be caught. It was a big point in the game and it gave them some momentum." C.J. Wilson (12-9) struggled just to reach the fifth, but the Angels offence secured his second straight victory. The inconsistent left-hander gave up seven hits and struck out six. Marisnick, from nearby Riverside, got a 20-foot RBI single in the first inning when Wilson and catcher Chris Iannetta couldnt field his bases-loaded topper cleanly. Los Angeles maintained its four-game lead over Baltimore (88-59) for the majors best record. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED Robbie Grossman reached first in the fourth inning when Lawless successfully challenged a call for the first time as the Astros manager. Replays showed C.J. Cron hadnt applied a tag after catching an errant throw from Erick Aybar. Grossman came around to score on Dexter Fowlers double. BEARD AND WEIRD Before the game, Angels President Tim Carpino donned a fake black beard as he presented the AL pitcher of the month award to right-hander Matt Shoemaker. The executives phoney facial hair was even bigger than Shoemakers tonsorial trademark. Several Angels reserves also wore fake beards for a group photo with Shoemaker. TRAINERS ROOM Angels: Cleanup hitter Josh Hamilton missed his eighth straight game with an injured right shoulder, and the offence again didnt miss him. The 2010 AL MVPs return is still uncertain. ... LHP Joe Thatcher was activated from the disabled list after a six-week absence with a sprained ankle. UP NEXT Astros RHP Scott Feldman (8-10, 3.99 ERA) starts the middle game of the series against RHP Jered Weaver (16-8, 3.58), who looks for his AL-leading 17th win. Brian McCann Jersey . -- So much for concern that running back Marshawn Lynch would be absent from the Seattle Seahawks minicamp. Jason Castro Astros Jersey . Cruz set the tone with a two-run homer in the first inning, and Baltimore scored eight times in the eighth to pull away for a 12-3 victory in Game 1. The major league leader with 40 homers during the regular season, Cruz added an RBI single to his early blast off Max Scherzer. http://www.baseballastrosproshop.com/alex-bregman-astros-jersey/ . Jimmy Howard made 44 saves and Henrik Zetterberg scored two goals, leading the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.The Washington Capitals overhauled their defence, by paying huge money to a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins. Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik. The Capitals Get: D Matt Niskanen and D Brooks Orpik. Niskanen, 27, picked a terrific time to have the best year of his career, scoring a career-best 10 goals and 46 points while playing a career-high 21:18 per game. He was also a career-best plus-33, which is all well and good, but he was one of six regular defencemen (minimum 62 games played) to have a combined on-ice save percentage and on-ice shooting percentage (PDO) at 5-on-5 of 103.0 or better. An on-ice shooting percentage over 10.0% is difficult for any defenceman to sustain, but Niskanens 10.32% was the third-best of his career; basically, its the kind of good fortune that shouldnt be expected, but its not out of the realm of possibility from season to season for Niskanen. Where the puck luck really stuck with Niskanen last year, was that he also had a .928 on-ice save percentage during 5-on-5 play, so getting favourable percentages at both ends of the ice during the same year contributed to that strong plus-minus. That shouldnt diminish the evaluation of Niskanen entirely, though, because he has consistently been on the right side of the puck possession ledger, and that makes him an asset to any team that acquires him. While Niskanen hasnt typically played hard minutes, and in some years has been excessively sheltered, hes likely to face more difficult matchups now that hes the highest-priced defenceman on the Capitals roster. Signed for seven years and $40.25-million, Niskanen landed the biggest free agent contract of the year. There was probably an element of paying for the good fortune that Niskanen experienced last year, and it is a gamble that Niskanen is going to be able to live up to the money involved in that contract, but if a team is going to swing for the fences on a free agent defenceman, doing so on a guy with consistently strong possession numbers is at least a reasonable foundation on which to make that investment. Which brings us to Brooks Orpik, a 33-year-old who has made his bones as a physical, hard-hitting defenceman, registering more than 200 hits in five of the past seven seasons. The unfortunate part, however, is that Orpik in position to hit so much -- particularly in recent years -- because his team doesnt have the puck as often when hes on the ice and the problem with a defensive defenceman who is already on the wrong end of the possession game is that hes certainly not likely to get better as he gets older. For example, in the 2013-2014 season, there were seven defencemen that were over 35 and scored fewer than 20 points (as Orpik has in everyy season of his career, except one). Jose Cruz Jr. Jersey. Its an okay list, some useful players, but six of the seven were 35 or 36. Orpik is signed through his age 38 season and the only -- the only -- NHL defenceman that played more than 60 games without scoring more than 20 points last season was Tampa Bays Sami Salo, who has never played the kind of physical, banging style that characterizes Orpiks game, in part because Salo was always hurt anyway. This doesnt offer much encouragement that the Capitals wont have massive regrets about the Orpik signing; the only question is how soon will those regrets occur? Can he give the Capitals a couple of solid years, maybe facing lower-calibre of competition than he did in Pittsburgh? Thats probably the best hope, but its a longshot that the last two, maybe even three years, wont have the Capitals paying big money for a spare part on their blueline. Orpik is signed for five years, at a cap hit of $5.5-million per season. Big money, long term. Pittsburgh anticipated that they would lose both Niskanen and Orpik and, in addition to having an opening or two for some prospects, they also signed Christian Ehrhoff to add stability to their defence. Its entirely understandable for the Capitals to make a move to upgrade their defence. They allowed 33.5 shots per game, ranking 27th in the league, last season, so the defence needed to get better. Ultimately, the Capitals are better today after adding Niskanen and Orpik, but that should never be up for debate when committing close to $11-million annually to two players. What has to matter is how much better they are, whether the money spent is worth it and what the fall-out will be. The Capitals dont have to make any moves --- they are under the $69-million salary cap -- but they have $28,762,500 committed to their defence, according to Cap Geek. The only teams spending in that neighbourhood for their defence are Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, who have Chris Pronger and Mattias Ohlund, respectively, on long-term injured reserve. St. Louis and Chicago are spending in the $24-million-to-$25-million on their respective bluelines right now, so its hard to imagine that the Capitals maintain the status quo, leaving a hole at second line centre while sticking with the most expensive defence corps in the league. We will see what other moves the Capitals have in mind this summer but, right now, it appears that they spent a lot of money to get better in the short-term; signing deals that appear to have more downside risk because of the long terms involved. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '