THE SMART AL PICK? FLY TO THE ANGELS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

OAKLAND - A couple of weeks ago, you wouldn't have bet on the Angels' pennant chances. You wouldn't have bet on the Angels' pennant chances with Arte Moreno's nickel.

Now, all of a sudden, the Angels are the team to beat in the American League playoffs.

The smart-money pick. The club to fear. The team to beat.

I say this not merely because, as long as New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland are beating each other up for in a fight for the other three slots, the Angels are the only team certain to be in the American League playoffs.

I say this because as much as those other teams have to play for, and as well as the Indians have played lately, nobody has played as well as the Angels in the 10-1 streak that took them from a division tie with Oakland to Tuesday's clincher here.

Nobody will go into the playoffs next week as well-rested, with a pitching rotation as carefully arranged, or as confident as these L.A. boys from Anaheim.

At first, Tuesday's wild celebration seemed over-the-top, unseemly for a clubhouse full of Angels who won a World Series and were reminded in last year's first-round sweep by Boston how quickly division-title champagne can evaporate.

Then you realized why the party was so hearty. It was abject relief at the end of a harder-than-expected regular season. And it was all-out optimism going into October.

``I feel much better this year than last year,'' Mike Scioscia said shortly before Bengie Molina pulled the most extreme prank of the celebration by dumping a cooler full of ice over the manager's head.

In the other dugout the next afternoon, Oakland manager Ken Macha was talking about why Scioscia should feel good going into his third playoffs in four seasons.

``I just look at this,'' Macha said, and then he served up two platefuls of ``this.''

``(The Angels) have both (Scot) Shields and (Kelvim) Escobar available for a few innings coming out of the bullpen, and (Francisco) Rodriguez to close the games off; a guy like (Bartolo) Colon, a dominant pitcher, (who in) five games will probably get two starts,'' Macha said. ``They have great pitching, they certainly play great defense; they've got great speed, so they can manufacture runs; and they've got a big bat (Vladimir Guerrero's) in the lineup ...''

Macha added: ``I look at the teams that are out there right now, there's not one team you look at and say, `Wow.' ''

But that's the point: No American League contender compares with National League St. Louis for top-to-bottom quality and consistency. Each has a hole. Each is hot and cold.

Given that, you take the hottest right now.

A couple of weeks ago, the Angels couldn't hit the ball hard enough to break the neighbors' window. Fans didn't just have reservations about the bullpen, they had a regular table with a view of the Shields-Rodriguezmayhem.

Then this: In the 11 games that ended Tuesday, the Angels averaged nearly six runs a game and were invulnerable in relief with Escobar taking heat off Shields and Rodriguez.

The Angels don't hit enough home runs to frighten anyone, you say? OK, with 140 homers, they're 10th in the American League.

Know where they ranked the year they won the World Series? They were 10th in the American League.

Of the past decade's World Series winners, half finished in the bottom half of their league in home runs.

Wednesday, the champagne was still in the air in the visitors' clubhouse at the Oakland Coliseum, red ``2005 MLB Playoffs'' sweatshirts had been draped over the backs of players' chairs, and Angels chattered while watching the Red Sox on TV. Meanwhile, in the home clubhouse, the silence was broken mainly by attendants unspooling tape to seal up boxes of equipment.

Scioscia's big challenges for the week before the Tuesday playoff opener will be to avoid over-resting his regulars, and to decide which of his five starters to move to the bullpen. ``It's a nice problem,'' he said of the second one.

The manager filled his day-after-clinching lineup card with bench players and watched the Angels lose to the Athletics 6-1. For one night, at least, he wasn't concerned about the now-real possibility of stealing a round of playoff home-field advantage by besting the Yankees' and Red Sox's records.

``What's important is how you're playing, not where or who,'' Scioscia said.

That's why the Angels are the team to beat.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

(color) The Angels' bullpen, led by Francisco Rodriguez, is one reason the team could win the American League.

Ben Margot/Associated Press

Box:

PLAYOFF CHASE