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Get the Houston Astros jokes out of your system, Angels fans.

If you haven't heard by now, the Astros are joining the AL West. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for the Angels? Depends on your time horizon.

For a year or two, the Angels can probably count on a few more wins per year against a team that lost 106 games last season. Coupled with the extra wild-card berth, that might means the Angels have a better shot at the playoffs in 2013 and 2014. Maybe even 2015.

Beyond that, things get dicey.

I was talking recently to a prominent agent, who brought up -- unprompted -- what a bad thing this is going to be for the Angels. Houston is a major market, the No. 6 metropolitan area in the United States. The Astros figure to eventually sign a mega-dollar TV deal. They also have a new owner and those guys tend to want to spend lavishly when they first get their new toy.

We've already seen the rise of the Texas Rangers, under new ownership and a good management team, led by Nolan Ryan. The Astros, playing in the same division, figure to compete like crazy to out-do, or stay with, their in-state rivals.

The state of Texas is already a major headache for the Angels. Before long, they might be in for double the pain.

These three games kind of speak for themselves, don't they?

By the end of this weekend's series in Texas, the Angels could be anywhere from first place (by a game) to barely clinging to contention, five games out with 29 to go.

But what doesn't speak for itself is the direction the teams have been heading lately. To catch up on the state of the Rangers, we checked in with our friend from ESPNDallas.com, Richard Durrett:

MS. Richard, What has happened to the Rangers? From your seat, is it just that they've been playing a tough team, the Red Sox, or are there indications of more systematic breakdowns?

RD. No question, the Red Sox came in with their bats swinging and ready to go. But two big concerns came out of the series. First, the starting pitching didn't do the job in the final three games. CJ Wilson has been great, but other than that, it's a trend for the whole month, really. Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Alexi Ogando have all pitched more innings this season than they ever have and it might be taking a toll. They say they aren't tired, but they look it. Second, the offense struggled to do anything. They are batting .197 in the last 8 games, which includes that walkoff win by Trumbo, and are 2-6. The Rangers must get those trends turned around to win this series.

MS. Momentum is fickle in baseball. Do you see it as a factor in this series?

RD. Momentum can change quickly. We saw that last week in Anaheim. It's a factor early in the series, in that both teams come in on vastly different runs. But once the game starts, it just depends on who can get on a roll. I think it's more critical for the Rangers to score early just to feel like the bats can get going and that they have a lead. They haven't really had that feeling in three days.

MS. I read Nolan Ryan's comments about the pitching looking tired. Can you draw this out a little bit? Which guys, specifically, are wearing down?

RD. As I mentioned earlier, it's the young guys like Holland, Harrison and Ogando, though Lewis has struggled at times too. Harrison's velocity was down in his last start, which makes me wonder if that's also fatigue. But he said he felt good physically out there. The Rangers know it's an issue and they are meeting after the series to decide if they want to spot start someone and how to work the rotation with the off days. I think they'll do something to try to give these guys a little bit of a break.

MS. Everyone talks about the heat of Texas. This year it's been more ridiculous than usual. Something about a high-pressure system. Is it too late to build a retractable roof, can you give us some details about first-pitch temperatures and is it a factor in this series? In this season?

RD. It's been triple-digit first pitches for much of July and August. And it is more ridiculous than normal. A retractable roof isn't possible. Way too costly. I do wish there was a way to configure Cowboys Stadium for baseball, but I can't see that happening. So everyone will just have to deal with it. Even starting the game at midnight wouldn't help much. It's just hot here all the time right now.

MS. What's your prediction for the next three games?

RD. Though the Rangers are clearly struggling, I'll say they win 2 out of 3. I don't think either team will sweep and I can't think the offense can struggle like this much longer. But it should be very entertaining. What the Angels have done is make this a great race.

Norm Cash had already struck out three times and he was the last man standing between Nolan Ryan and his second no-hitter when the Detroit Tigers slugger dreamed up a little gag.

Cash came to the plate carrying a table leg that he had hacked off one of the clubhouse tables. When umpire Ron Luciano ruled the bat illegal, Cash said, "Why, I won't hit it anyway," before retreating to the dugout for a real bat.

He was right, in a way. Cash popped up, leaving Ryan stuck on 17 strikeouts for the day -- July 15, 1973 -- two shy of the major-league record. But Ryan would have his strikeout record, 383 that season, surpassing Sandy Koufax's single-season record for the modern era, a record that still stands.

He would have to wait a while to have his revenge. Ryan faced Cash a couple of years later and left him with a little souvenir: a 98-mph fastball on his right arm. Ryan's teammate, pitcher Clyde Wright, saw Cash the next day.

"He was black and blue all the way down his back," Wright recalled. "A lot of people didn't realize, Nolan could be mean. If he didn't like you or something, he could get pretty nasty. Everyone thinks he was just good, ol' boy Nolan. Uh-uh."

Wright usually pitched the day after Ryan. He would sit on a towel on the top dugout step to watch the big right-hander work. What stood out for him about that remarkable 1973 season was how intimidating Ryan could be. His brushback pitches sparked several benches-clearing brawls that year. Reggie Jackson once said Ryan was the only pitcher he feared, and not because he could get him out.

When he was asked to comment on Ryan surpassing his record, Koufax said at the time, "I suspect half those guys swung rather than get hit."

The other amazing thing about 1973 is that, somehow, Ryan, 26 at the time, didn't win the Cy Young award. Jim Palmer, who had 30 fewer innings and 180 fewer strikeouts, won it. Why? Palmer had one more win and seven fewer losses. Ryan would go 21-16 with a 2.87 ERA. Palmer was 22-9 with a 2.40 ERA.

Ryan would win 22 games the next season and lead the majors in strikeouts, falling just 16 short of his own record. He also led the league in walks.

Later, Ryan's command would improve dramatically, helping him pitch until he was 46 with the Texas Rangers. But he would never be as dominant as he was in his twenties with the Angels, when hitters had basically two choices: dig in and risk their safety or give in meekly and walk back to the bat rack.

When the New York Yankees visited Angel Stadium last weekend, Angels right fielder Torii Hunter said it felt like there had been an "infestation" of Yankees fans.

Little does Hunter know how things were in the old days, when the Angels were an also-ran franchise and their stadium filled with East Coast fans every time the Yankees, Red Sox or Orioles came to town.

In July 1979, the Angels had been around for 18 years without reaching the postseason. They hosted the Yankees in a three-game series at their ballpark just before the All-Star break. When the series began, the Angels felt like visitors at their home stadium. By the time it was over, they had made it theirs and the "Yes We Can" Angels were on their way to breaking the playoff hex.

"The fans were like, 'We believe, but you've got to show us,' " Don Baylor recalled. "It was something a lot of Angels players had thought about for a long time."

It was a wildly dramatic series, the kind that can stir a tired team's emotions and carry them through the dog days. It featured clutch home runs from the eventual league MVP, Baylor, and from one of the greatest players in franchise history, second baseman Bobby Grich. The manager was Jim Fregosi, who had played shortstop for the Angels in their second year of existence.

"The franchise had never won anything," Fregosi said. "And until you win a division or get into the playoffs, you don't have any belief or tradition."

In the first game, Nolan Ryan carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Reggie Jackson broke it up with a one-out single.

Saturday's game was a battle. Baylor and Joe Rudi hit solo home runs off Goose Gossage to get within two runs in the eighth inning, but the Yankees got one back against Dave LaRoche in the ninth. Gossage, one of the most intimidating relievers of all time, was still on the mound with two outs and two on in the bottom of the ninth when Baylor got an inside pitch and sent it screaming down the left-field line. It clanged off the foul pole for a three-run homer to tie it. Seldom-used Merv Rettenmund won it for the Angels with an RBI single in the 12th.

Things didn't get any easier Sunday with Ron Guidry on the mound for the Yankees, but again they found a way. This time, Grich hit the three-run homer in the ninth that won over Angels fans and gave the team a feeling of confidence it would carry all the way to October.

"That was just wild," said Dave Frost, the starting pitcher for the Angels that day. "It wasn't like we won the World Series or anything, but it was just one of those home runs that's a cut above the rest. You knew what a big one that was by the sound of the crowd."

The Angels ran into a powerful Baltimore Orioles team in the ALCS and, despite leading in each of the first three games, they would lose the series three games to one. It was a start. The Angels wouldn't win their first playoff series until 2002. It all started with stamping out that infestation in their home stadium.

Editor's note: This story is part of an occasional series of Angels Moments which, when it's complete, will -- we hope -- add up to 50. The Angels are celebrating their 50th anniversary this season. These are not intended to be an exhaustive list, but simply an assembly of scenes and anecdotes that are part of the team's colorful past.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – A crisp, white No. 45 St. Louis Cardinals jersey signed by Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson was draped on a hanger in the empty locker adjacent to Dan Haren’s on Tuesday night. Haren isn’t big on memorabilia, but this was a special item.

“I’ve only got two,” Haren said. “That one and Nolan Ryan’s.”

Gibson and Ryan might have nodded with approval watching what Haren did Tuesday night in a 2-0 Angels win over the Cleveland Indians. In an era of pitchers babied because of six- and seven-man bullpens and coddled to protect multi-million-dollar investments, Haren looked as strong in the ninth inning as he had in the first, mowing down the Indians in a 1-2-3 ninth to complete the 17^th one-hitter in Angels history.

Of the previous 16 Angels one-hitters, Ryan had thrown six of them.

It was a throwback performance by a throwback kind of pitcher. Haren has never missed a start, pitches at least 220 innings every year and isn’t peeking over his shoulder to see who’s warming up in the seventh inning.

“That workhorse you’re talking about, the list of those names isn’t quite as long as it was 40 or 50 years ago,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “You’re right to put Dan Haren right in the middle of a short list.”

Haren (3-0) had already thrown 115 pitches entering the ninth and he knew Scioscia would have pulled him if he’d allowed a base runner. So, he didn’t, getting Clevelands Nos. 1-3 hitters on a total of 10 pitches.

The Indians hit a few balls hard, but their one base hit was a glancing blow, a sinking liner by Shin-Soo Choo with one out in the fourth inning. After that, Haren just kept going out there and throwing strikes in good spots. Even the time of game felt like something from the 1960s, just two hours and 15 minutes.

Haren shares that in common with the old-time pitchers, too. He’s not afraid to throw the ball over the plate and let his defense work behind him.

“I was going at them pretty much the whole night, kind of controlled aggressiveness,” Haren said. “It was such a close game, I didn’t want to leave anything out over the plate but I didn’t want to get burned with the walk.”

The Angels are seeing an interesting chemistry develop between Haren and Jered Weaver, who seem to be pushing each other along in the first couple of weeks. Both pitchers have won every game they’ve pitched, including Haren in his one relief appearance in the past eight seasons, during Saturday night’s 14-inning marathon.

One of these days, the Angels are going to have to win a game in which one of those guys doesn’t pitch. But a pair of aces isn’t a bad hand.