Do the Los Angeles Angels have enough steam to make the Playoffs?

In the most compelling playoff race going on right now, the AL West and wild card could go a number of directions.

To date, the Texas Rangers are leading the AL West over the Houston Astros by two games and the Los Angeles Angels by 2.5 games. In the AL wild card race, the New York Yankees have a commanding three game lead for the first spot, but the Astros are ahead of the Angels by only half a game.

As of a couple weeks ago, LA was all but eliminated, but with only five regular season games remaining, they could very well sneak their way into the postseason.

With the hot play of stars Albert Pujols and Mike Trout, and solid bench production from David Murphy and David Freese, the Angels have won six games in a row. If the Angels were to make the playoffs via the wild card, it would be the first time since 2002 when they won the World Series. More importantly, the team has really come together as one unit as of late and believe they can make a playoff run.

”We’ve got a great group of guys with a lot of character in here,” Angels outfielder David Murphy said, via SI.com. ”Just a never-say-die attitude, and the results truly reveal the character of this team. People say it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We’re finishing strong.”

With four games remaining against the Rangers in Arlington, the Angels are doing everything in their power to knock either the Rangers or Astros out of the playoffs. Timely hitting, clutch defense and stalwart pitching have all been coming together the past couple weeks for the Angels, but they did lose a key player to injury.

Closer Huston Street left Saturday’s game with a groin injury and has been ruled out for the remainder of the regular season following an MRI. Set-up man Joe Smith has assumed the closer role in Street’s absence.

How important is Street to the Angels? Well, he leads the AL with 40 saves in 62 appearances this season. A dominating closer can be a significant difference in postseason baseball, and the Angels will need, and rely, on Street if he is able to return for the playoffs, which he is poised to do.

“The MRI results, I think, were very positive,” Street said, via MLB.com. “Probably not gonna be before the end of the season — that is unfortunate. If we get there, I’m gonna try to be back as soon as I possibly can.”

Even with Street’s dissapointing injury, he still remains loose and even joked with his teammates via his Twitter account.

With a 2015 payroll of $146 million, the time to win is now for LA.

According to Fangraphs, the Angels rank 27th in current prospect system, and the team’s current roster, with the exception of Trout, is not getting any younger.

As stated before, hot teams are usually the ones to make deep playoff runs. With the declining play of the Astros, the Angels have all the tools and heart to take the second wild card spot. If they do so, they will most likely travel to New York to take on the Yankees in the one game play-in game.

Either way, baseball fans can be assured that the last series with the Rangers will certainly be an exciting end to the 2015 MLB regular season.