The Angels, coming off an 80–82 record in 1966, started slowly. On May 31, they were 18–27 and 10 games out of first place. At that point, they began to jell, and after going 20–11 in June and 17–11 in July, they found themselves at 55–49. While this put them in fifth place, they were only 4½ games out of first in what had become a five-team race between the Angels, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and the surprising Boston Red Sox.