A good friend writes:

Not that this would ever happen, but should LAA tank todays game against the Mariners, to increase the probability that Oak/Sea play more games and mess up their starting rotations going into the postseason?

Note that the Angels brought in their scrubs in the seventh inning last night, just before Seattle tied the game at one. It wasn’t like Scioscia was going all out to win that game, especially with Oakland losing. Given that the team did get out of a bases loaded, no-out situation in the ninth, they at least weren’t being obvious about tanking it.

If the Angels are in a situation where allowing the Mariners win forces an extra game, they would only want to do that if they’d rather face one of the Tiger/Royals instead of one of the Mariners/Athletics. During the regular season, they played Detroit, KC, and Oakland evenly, but lost eleven of the 18 games they played so far against Seattle. I would think the Angels would want to eliminate the Mariners.

Also with Felix Hernandez being forced to pitch today, he won’t start game one of the ALDS even if the Mariners get that far, so there’s no particular reason to force the Mariners and Athletics into an extra game.

Also, if Detroit and the Royals tie, there’s a chance the Angels wind up facing the Tigers in the ALDS. I would not want to encourage that.

I don’t see a good reason for the Angels to throw the game, although I also see no good reason for them to risk injury to their stars, either. I suspect a rookie lineup plays hard against the Mariners.