A lot of Angels fans (including my boss with his Angels tattoo) right now are asking themselves: how the hell did we lose that series? Vlad Guerrero and Mark Teixeira hit .467; Torii Hunter hit .389; Chone (pronounced Cho-knee) Figgins hit .333. Mike Napoli hit the ball well at Fenway. It boggles the mind. This team actually outhit the Red Sox and was in it in all three losses but couldn’t come away with more than one win? Why is that?
Now I know what you’re expecting? You’re expecting me to say it’s because they suck. Well, I won’t do that. The Angels are a very good team. Maybe even better than the Rays (probably not). They’ve got great pitching to go along with their above average hitting so why did they get destroyed again this postseason by the best team in baseball?
1. Lack of slugging: The Angels racked up 45 hits in the four game series. Of those 45 hits, 6 of them went for extra bases and 4 of them were in one game. They loaded the bases several times during the course of the series but had trouble plating runs. Is this because of their team philosophy of stealing bases, moving the man over and going first to third? Is this because of the Red Sox pitching? Is this because of the Red Sox defense? I don’t really have an answer, but they weren’t getting any power out of their bats.
2. Lack of defense: The Angels were only credited with 4 errors but there were several more that could have been assessed. The infield booted the ball and missed on liners up the middle. The Red Sox scored far too many unearned runs. Oh, and Reggie Willits blew it last night by diving for Jason Bay’s liner in the bottom of the ninth. If he had played it safe, Bay probably would have been held to a single (just like the Angels).
3. Base running blunders: For a team that prides itself on its baserunning ability, this team blew it on several occasions. The most glaring was last night in the top of the ninth when Varitek tagged out Reggie Willits on the missed squeeze play. But let’s also not forget Vlad’s mistake in game 1 when he tried to go first to third on Torii Hunter’s bloop single that barely managed to stay fair. They ran themselves out of scoring opportunities and when the margin of victory is one run, that’s a huge error.
In all, the Red Sox are going to have to improve their play if they’re going to beat the Rays. Pedroia, Ortiz and Youkilis all hit poorly in the series in large part due to the quality of the Angels pitching. They’re going to have to score more runs to beat the Rays though.
Sox in 5.
Simple: pitching and defense
/welcome to clicheland
The Angels pitching was good. Their defense was bad. They were halfway there, no?
By the way, this is the email I sent to my boss and coworker today (big Angels fans). They argued that the Angels were better exclusively because of their superior record and they cut off all conversation after that point:
Dear XX and XX,
You were both correct: the best way to measure a team’s chances in the playoffs is to look exclusively at their win/loss record.
Sincerely,
The 2008 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
p.s. You guys want to get a team together and play the Mariners this week? I think we can beat them.
I might need to find a new job.
No. They do actually suck. They were about the 6th or 7th best team in the AL this year, behind Sox, Sox, Jays, Rays, Yanks, and arguably the Indians.
Suck is strong. Guess they were about average.
Bo and Ty?
/we were supposed to guess their names, right?
they didn’t have numba 2…derek…jetah.
Imagine if we had the Aybar brothers going head to head in the ALCS. There’s only one OCTOBER!!!
Are they brothers, fer serial?
The Rays Aybar is a wife beater.
For serious. i always wondered if they were. and i looked it up when Erick fucked them over on the squeeze. Willy (Rays) is the older brother I believe.
I’m pretty sure they’re both black. Aren’t they all related?
/NickP
the only “Erick” I know is the Green Eyed Bandit.
Peep game
Go Rays!
Only one reason that the Angels lost: they were not clutch.
And clown, it’s just Eric. He controls his career so he will never get stranded (I miss EPMD and its fellow Hit Squad members)
Scioscia: “What the hell, Aybar?”
Aybar: “Suicide Squeeze? I thought the sign was for a Donnie Moore Squeeze.”