Posted on 10/11/2009 6:25:12 PM PDT by doug from upland
How Sweep It Is: Angels Exorcise Demons, Defeat Boston in Playoffs by Johnathan Kroncke
Scribe Written on October 11, 2009 BOSTON - OCTOBER 11:
The Angels were beaten. They had to be.
Down 5-2 in the eighth inning and facing two stellar relievers lined up to close the game, they could only look to tomorrow and a Game Four match-up between Joe Saunders and Jon Lester.
Or at least, that's what it looked like. But appearances can be deceiving.
Once again, I must defer to the great linguist Yogi Berra who famously declared, “It ain't over 'till it's over.”
Unbelievably, impossibly, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim came back to sweep the Boston Red Sox and advance to the American League Championship Series.
Any talk of demons, curses, or hexes has been laid to rest for good.
What's more, the Angels did it in a game in which they failed to execute in all the ways that helped them build their commanding two-game lead.
The starting pitching wasn't there, the hits weren't coming with men in scoring position, and Halos were left hanging on every base.
At least, through the first seven innings.
But from the eighth inning on, this was the Angels' game to lose.
Key at-bats by the Angels' biggest run-producers fueled a dramatic come-back off of Boston's top relievers, setup man Billy Wagner and All-Star closer Jonathan Papelbon.
Bobby Abreu got things going in the eighth when he lined a double off Kevin Youkilis' glove. Wagner then walked Vladimir Guerrero with one on and one out.
Papelbon eventually came on with runners at second and third and two men gone, looking for a four-out save.
He never found it.
Juan Rivera smacked a single into center field that brought home the runners and put the Angels just one run down.
In the top of the ninth, Kevin Jepsen struggled a bit, giving up a run to give the Sox a two-run lead, but by then it didn't matter. The Angels' come-back train was already on track and picking up steam.
Of the 97 wins that L.A. of A. racked up during the regular season, 47 were of the come-from-behind variety.
In no contest did it ever seem like they were out of it, never to rally or show any heart, and it was no different here in Game Three.
After quickly getting the first two men out, Papelbon was staring down the barrel of yet another postseason save. The batter, Erick Aybar, was immediately put in a 1-2 hole.
Exactly where he wanted to be.
Papelbon grooved a fastball right over the outer half of the plate and Aybar easily laced back up the middle for a single.
The next batter, Chone Figgins, also found himself with two strikes, but he worked the count masterfully and eventually earned a walk.
For the third straight at-bat, the Angels were down to their last strike when Papelbon put Abreu in another 1-2. And for the third straight time, they came away with a baserunner.
Abreu stayed with Papelbon's fastball that tailed away toward the outside corner and lined it off the Green Monster, driving in Aybar and keeping the inning alive.
With their lead back to just one run, the Red Sox walked Torii Hunter to load the bases for Vladimir Guerrero, a prolific hitter in his day but someone who was thought to be aging and having a hard time catching up to fastballs.
Big Daddy lined the first pitch he saw into center field, plating the final two runners and putting the Angels on top for good.
A stunned Boston crowd looked on as Brian Fuentes worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to end the Red Sox' season while the Angels partied their way into the clubhouse and on to the ALCS.
Scott Kazmir, the Angels' Game Three starter, was off his game from the very first pitch. His fastballs were all up in the strike zone, and his slider was non-existent for most of the day.
By the third inning, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, and Victor Martinez had seen all they needed to of Kazmir, producing three runs in the inning and taking the early lead.
Kendry Morales belted a solo home run deep to right field in the fourth inning to get the Angels back within two, but J.D. Drew answered in the bottom of the frame with a two-run shot of his own, giving the Sox an intimidating 5-1 lead.
Clay Buchholz, Boston's rookie starter, pitched well and got out of several jams before getting rattled in the sixth and loading the bases with nobody out.
The Angels scratched out only one run in that inning when Rivera grounded into yet another bases-loaded double play, his second of the series.
By that point though, they had squandered several opportunities with men in scoring position, and it felt like this just wasn't their day.
But these guys just never know when to say quit.
They showed more than just heart in Sunday's come-from-behind elimination victory; the Angels proved once and for all that, for them, the past is the past.
There is no more looking back, no more fearing that what happened before might happen again.
These guys, much like the championship squad of 2002, are tough, resilient, and never ever look like they're out of any game.
It seems unbelievable that the Angels were able to pull out that win against those pitchers in that ballpark. But then, this team has gone through much rougher times and still come out swinging.
For the first time in the Angels' playoff history, down goes Boston! Down goes Boston! DOWN GOES BOSTON!
Have the Angels finally overcome the albatross of 1986?
Again, the Angels nearly reached the World Series in the 1986 post season. Again champions of the American League West, the Angels faced the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS (now best 4-out-of-7). Leading in the series 3 games to 1, the Angels were one win away from defeating Boston and going to the World Series for the first time in their franchise history. Donnie Moore came in to pitch the top of the 9th inning of Game Five with a 5-2 lead. Though twice the Halos were one strike away from winning the A.L. Pennant, Moore gave up a two-out, two-strike, two-run home run to Dave Henderson that put Boston ahead 6-5. After the Angels tied the game in the bottom of the 9th, Boston would later win the game 7-6 in 11 innings and win the remaining two games in the series to play in the 1986 World Series.
I’m sure there are millions of snobby northeastern liberal elites crying in their clam chowder over the loss about now......breaks my heart.
From my house, I can hear the Friday night home game fireworks from Angels Stadium. I’ve been a Halos fan since I was a kid in the ‘70s. The ‘86 loss to the Sox was brutal. Same with the two playoff sweeps the Sox have issued to the Angels this decade.
Today, I watched the game with my dad and we never gave up, predicting the come-from-behind win.
It was beautiful!
..I wish Donnie Moore would have lived to see this—but this is sweet...
On July 18, 1989, during an argument with his wife Tonya, Moore shot her three times, the incident occurring in view of their three children at their Anaheim Hills home.[1][2] Tonya Moore and daughter Demetria, then 17 years of age, fled from the house and Demetria drove her mother to the hospital. Both survived the shooting.
Back inside the house, still in the presence of one of his sons, Moore then fatally shot himself.[1]
When he was cut by Kansas City, he’d really been depressed about that. I mean, here he is, the high-life career . . . then all of a sudden, it’s gone. He comes back home . . . and the marriage, the family, is all destroyed. I mean, what else does he have left?[3]
— Demetria Moore on what drove her father to his final acts of desperation
..I had forgotten how he died—what a tragedy...
two wins for you today. one the angels win and the second getting to watch it with your father. beautiful is right.
I drove past the Big A 4 times today while running errands and it felt good to know they beat the Sox. Go Halos!
I am a diehard Red Sox fan, and the Angels will lose in 5 to the Yanks, hate to say it.
Like the Rays last year, the Angels blew all their juice on defeating the Sox, not winning it all.
After the Sox lose, I read about who won the Series when it hit the papers or in a magazine, no interest in any other team but the Red Sox.
A baseball fan, yes, but it’s like watching the Nationwide Tour in golf...no passion.
Albatross? 1986? Um, haven’t the Angels won a World Series since 1986? So they finally beat the Sox in the playoffs—big deal.
Now let’s see if they can get past the Yankees...
The albatross was about finally beating the Sox in a playoff series. That was a big deal after the disappointment way back in 1986.
I don’t see how that’s really comparable to some other teams albatrosses (sp?), like the Sox’ own curse from 1918-2004, the White Sox’ long drought or the Cubs—especially since the Halos won the title in the last decade, but hey, gotta sell something I guess.
I don’t have to sell anything, and that claim is somewhat insulting. You invented that I was making a comparison. In fact, it was not compared to anything such as the Billy Goat Curse, the Curse of the Bambino, or the Hillary Curse.
As an Angels’ fan, I simply noted that perhaps the monkey is finally off their back for that tragic loss to Boston when they were so close in 1986. They finally beat them in the playoffs. That’s all.
Think about it. All of the NL and AL championship action will be in L.A. this coming weekend. That alone should cause some gallstones... hahaha.
Are you ready to welcome the Wankers... er, uh, Yankees... to town on Friday?
:-)
gallstones is right! and worse! I pull for a yankees/dodger series each year, (and have since I was a young’n), snider, hodges, furillo, campy, reese, robinson, koufax, drysdale, wills for the dodgers. joe d., berra, mantle, martin, scooter, ford, richardson, nettles, reggie, guidry, pinella for the bombers. great players, great match ups, some real characters and just great baseball. I can’t wait for this year’s series. should be great no matter what two teams end up going at it.
Yes, indeedy, I’m an oldtimer too. Snider is my all-time favorite Dodger. I’ve been True Blue since they came to town in ‘58.
Anyway, this is the most electrifying, exciting Dodger team to come along in well over a decade. I love this New Blue Wrecking Crew.
Let’s see how it goes...:-) It’s a dynamic year for baseball.
all-time brooks: catcher-campy. pitcher-mungo. 1b-hodges, the big marine. 2b-robinson. (babe herman maybe?). 3b-cox. ss-reese. of-wheat. of-dook of flatbush. of-furillo, the reading rifle. all-time LA: catcher-piazza. (rosey by FAR on defense) pitcher-koufax. 1b-garvey. 2b-lopes. 3b-penggy. ss-wills. of-willie davis. of-r. smith. of-tommy davis. (I know, I know, short timer BUT damn he could/did play at a HOF pace before he was hurt. whaddya say La Enchy?
What’s interesting is that of the final four teams, the team nobody really is talking that much about is the defending World Champions.
My favorites were Koufax, whose first no-hitter I was there to witness, and Steve Garvey. I have of photo somewhere of Garvey holding my son for his first Dodger game at about age 2. He was “Garbey.”
Favorite games: Koufax no-hitter and the 1981 World Series game in which the Dodgers hit back to back home runs against Guidry in the 7th to beat him 2-1.
We won’t meet the Evil Empire here in Anaheim until Monday, Game 3. I’m sure there will be plenty of Yank fans in our house.
I saw Garvey at the L.A. County Fair on Dodger Day this year. He looks terrific. And, of course, I love Sandy to bits. How sweet it would be to win it all for Vinny this year, huh?
I’m with you on Piazza. I did not care for Scioscia’s plate-blocking style. Also with you on Maury Wills. I have to think about some others, like slugger Greg Brock at 1B. I was very avid for the team in the ‘80s.
yep, brock was a very underated ball player in my mind. for straight defense only at first tho I would go with Wes Parker. that includes the entire history of the Dodger franchise also. he was smooth and slick out there.
The Patriots losing to the Broncos in overtime was just icing on the cake...a gloomy time for the chowder-slurping elites.
Campanis was GM at the time and I think jealous of what a stud Brock was, so traded him. My current favorite Dodger, it is hard to pick though, is James Loney, constantly improving all around. Heads up guy, always in it.
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