Anthony Rendon is not panicking.

He’s been here before and knows what it takes to turn a season around.

Rendon’s Nationals team was 11-14 through 25 games last year and went on to win the World Series. The Angels are 8-17 entering Thursday’s matchup against the Giants. And while the Angels don’t have the luxury of 162 games to make up ground, they still have a chance to make the postseason because of the new rules.

“It’s pretty much the same thing to what is happening now,” Rendon said. “If our pitching is amazing and they only give up one or two runs, then our hitting goes stagnant. And if our hitting scores about seven or eight runs, unfortunately, our pitching will give up eight or nine runs. So, it’s just about finding where we are all on the same page where our hitting is backing up our pitching and our pitching is backing our hitting.”

Last season, Rendon got off to a hot start, slashing .356/.442/.740 with six home runs and 18 RBIs through Nats’ first 25 games last year. He entered Thursday at .268/.441/.577 with six home runs and 13 RBIs this season. He batted .464 with five home runs in eight games during the last homestand, and after going 2-for-4 with an RBI double in Wednesday's series opener in San Francisco, he rapped an RBI single in the first inning Thursday.

This comes after snapping an 0-for-21 streak with a first-inning home run on Aug. 10. Rendon says he has no real explanation for the improvement at the plate -- “if I could tell you that answer then I probably wouldn't go 0-for-12-games or whatever it was.” But there’s no denying that he’s being more selective at the plate.

Rendon’s chase-rate -- the percentage of the pitches out of the zone that are swung at by a batter -- is 14.7% this season. It was 20.7% last year.

“Maybe more pitchers are throwing more balls,” Rendon joked. “I try to only swing at pitches in the zone every year. It's a small sample thus far, but hopefully I can keep it going and still try to swing at pitches in the zone.”

The Angels are going to have to pitch better if they expect to turn the season around. The club’s ERA entering Thursday was 5.13, which ranked 23rd in the big leagues. The starters ranked 27th with a 5.48 ERA and the bullpen ranked 19th with 4.64 ERA.

“I want us to just be more in attack mode on the mound, make the plays on defense,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. "For the most part, we've done that. And continue with the offense. I’m happy with the at-bats up and down. ... Overall, the team on the field I think we've been playing a pretty good game of baseball. We just got to morph it together with the pitching staff.”

As for Rendon, he will continue to do his part. He took a ground ball off his left wrist Wednesday, but said it’s not enough to keep him out of the lineup. Besides, like the Nationals last year, his Angels have work to do.

“We just got to keep grinding and keep on fighting out there and it's eventually going to turn around,” Rendon said. “We just got to keep on trusting in our talents and not get too caught up in the situation.”

Simmons on the mend: Andrelton Simmons, who has been out since July 27 because of a sprained left ankle, could be activated from the injured list and back in the lineup as early as Friday against the A’s in Oakland.

• The club optioned right-handed pitcher Jaime Barria to the alternate training site to make room on the roster for Thursday’s starter José Suarez.