Albert Pujols

As the ball left the bat of Mark Trumbo, as his teammates rushed out of the dugout in celebration, the Angels finally had the look of a championship contender. Trumbo hit a walk-off home run in the 13th inning Sunday, giving the Angels a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers. The Angels had their first sweep of the season; for that matter, their first three-game winning streak of the season. If they can get Josh Hamilton on track, the Angels really might have something special.

With Albert Pujols playing despite an injury to his left foot, the Angels are prepared for him to be limited to designated hitter for an extended period. "I'm dying," Pujols said Sunday. "It's hurting real bad. " Pujols started at DH for the fourth consecutive game, and has started more games at DH than at first base. He is suffering from plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the tissue that stretches across the bottom of the foot. The most effective treatment can be to stay off the foot - in the case of a baseball player, a stint on the disabled list to let the inflammation subside.

With Albert Pujols trying to play despite an injury to his left foot, the Angels are prepared for him to be limited to designated hitter for an extended period of time. "I'm dying," Pujols said Sunday. "It's hurting real bad. " Pujols started at DH for the fourth consecutive game Sunday, and he now has started more games at DH than at first base. He is suffering from plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the tissue that stretches across the bottom of the foot. The most effective treatment can be to stay off the foot -- in the case of a baseball player, a stint on the disabled list to let the inflammation subside.

Remember those pitching-rich but offensively impaired Angels teams from last decade that were presumably "one big bat" away from being World Series-caliber? Up until this weekend, they were looking pretty good, weren't they? Those teams made the playoffs five times from 2004-2009. This year's club is loaded with big bats, including four -- Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo -- who hit 30 homers or more in 2012. Yet, even after a two-game, 18-run, 30-hit explosion against Detroit, these Angels might be farther away from playoff contention than any of those limp-lumbered lineups of yore.

Mike Trout heard someone had fetched the ball he hit for his first career grand slam. Saturday's game had been over for half an hour, but Trout had neither the ball in his possession or any urgency to find it. "I didn't really think anything of it," he said. "It's just another home run. " Granted, Trout's rookie season was fairly amazing. But is he so jaded that a career first means nothing to him? "It's cool, I guess," he said. "I don't really have much to say about it. I'm just happy it went over.

  Join Times Dodgers writer Dylan Hernandez and Angels writer Mike DiGiovanna at 11:30 a.m. today as they discuss their respective teams in a live video chat to be held on this blog post. This really wasn't how the teams were supposed to begin the season. The Dodgers are 7-6 and in fourth place in the NL West; the Angels are 4-9 and tied for fourth in the AL West. Also troubling for the Angels is the fact Albert Pujols' knee and foot are still troubling him. As Kevin Baxter wrote earlier this week : "Albert Pujols was supposed to start Sunday's game at first base, but shortly after the lineup was posted Angels Manager Mike Scioscia changed plans, taking Pujols out of the field and using him as the designated hitter for the fifth time in 12 games.

Albert Pujols was supposed to start Sunday's game at first base, but shortly after the lineup was posted Angels Manager Mike Scioscia changed plans, taking Pujols out of the field and using him as the designated hitter for the fifth time in 12 games. Scioscia explained the switch by saying that Josh Hamilton, the original DH, wanted to continue familiarizing himself with right field at Angel Stadium. But it's clear that Pujols' surgically repaired right knee and the plantar fasciitis in his left foot are bothering him. "He's battling some stuff that he's had before," Scioscia said of Pujols, who played with plantar fasciitis for parts of 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Luis Jimenez began the season in the minor leagues, and two days ago J.B. Shuck was headed there. Andrew Romine, meanwhile, started the season on the Angels' bench, while Garrett Richards had one of the last seats in their bullpen. So when all four found themselves in the Angels' starting lineup Saturday against the Houston Astros, it appeared to be more of a statement about how far the team had fallen than about how fast those players' stock has risen. Yet that theory may have to be revised after Jimenez and Richards helped the Angels to a dramatic 5-4 win over the Astros that was decided on Albert Pujols' two-run, two-out double in the ninth inning.

Mike Scioscia insisted Thursday that his decision to move Mike Trout from leadoff to the second spot was part of a broader plan for Trout to migrate toward the middle of the order and not a panic move in reaction to the team's 2-6 start. But the fact that the Angels hit .120 (nine for 75) with runners in scoring position in the first eight games certainly expedited the move. Alberto Callaspo (.336 career on-base percentage) hit first Thursday, though Scioscia said the speedier Erick Aybar will lead off when he returns from a left heel injury.

Eight games into the 2013 season, and the Angels have already had their first team meeting. That's not good. It was brief, but Manager Mike Scioscia deemed it necessary after the Angels lost to the Oakland Athletics, 11-5, on Wednesday night, enduring another batch of unproductive at-bats in the clutch while falling to 2-6 and into last place in the American League West, 4 1/2 games behind the A's. “The talent is in that room, and once...