Projo Sports Blog

By Mark Whicker
The Orange County Register

ANAHEIM, Calif. - One pitch is enough in the playoffs.

Not the one Jason Bay blasted into the desperate hearts of the Angels fans in left field.
The one a few minutes before, the 3-2 breaking ball that Kevin Youkilis watched intently as it slid outside.

What Youkilis did was what got Youkilis to the big leagues in the first place, when he had a .486 on-base percentage and 86 walks at Double-A Portland, when everyone else in the minor leagues was trying to hack his way to stats.

He trusted his exceptional vision and watched John Lackey miss outside with curves.

That is how Youkilis became an on-base legend coming through the minor leagues, and this one-out walk hung ominously in the sultry air, for those with any sort of historical perspective on Boston's many autumn occupations of Orange County.

They say that pitchers survive more mistakes than anybody knows about, but Lackey had appeared to make almost none. That was before his 0-1, 90 mph fastball, one of the very few he threw that never moved an inch, until impact. Bay doesn't miss those, and this one landed in the left-field red, above both bullpens, for a 2-1 Boston lead.

It grew to 4-1 at the end of Game 1 of this Division Series, which means those 100-victory Angels, the ones who had the AL West clinched back when USC was unbeaten, have to win a playoff game in Fenway Park to keep this season moving. They have Game 2 first, on Friday, with 18-game winner Daisuke Matsuzaka to deal with.

This isn't over. But July is. Remember the two three-game sweeps of Boston? It doesn't appear the Red Sox do.

The Angels have a low frustration threshold when it comes to playing the Red Sox during fire season.

In the third inning they stewed when third base umpire Ed Rapuano wouldn't ring up David Ortiz on what they felt were unchecked swings. In the Angels' third, Mark Teixeira struck out when he tried to keep his hands still on a tantalizer from Jon Lester.

There were the five runners Howie Kendrick left stranded in the first and third innings.

There was the 0 for 9 that Lester dealt the bottom third of the Angels order in the first seven innings. There was the misplay by right fielder Gary Matthews Jr. in the seventh inning that put Jacoby Ellsbury on third base with two out and prevented Lackey for finishing that inning, although Darren Oliver came in to dismiss Ortiz.

There was no legitimate bunt attempts by Chone Figgins, even though third baseman Mike Lowell was playing on a squeaky wheel, and no steal attempts by what used to be the most disruptive offense in the AL.

And, everywhere, there was irresistible Red Sox youth, from the moment Ellsbury led off the game with a double and shook his first, to the moment Ellsbury, playing somewhere near the blue line at the ex-Pond, sprinted in to dive and catch Teixeira's floater in the eighth. Ellsbury rolled over, got to his knees, let go of the ball for an instant and snatched it again.

The Red Sox didn't need Lester to beat the Angels in the '07 Division Series. They leaned on him hard Wednesday night. The only run was unearned, on Jed Lowrie's error, and then on Torii Hunter's fly ball that landed about a step-and-a-half in front of Bay in left field. (If that happens with Garret Anderson in left field, the talk show phones melt.)

Lester threw 117 pitches. His 116th, to Anderson, was clocked at 95 mph. When he began dropping his curveball into the strike zone consistently and freezing the Angels with it, rather than watching them foul it off and stay alive, he became impossible. He also aimed his 94 mph cutter at their kneecaps to keep them from leaning.

At one point he struck out four of five Angels, and he never gave up an extra-base hit.

Finally Vladimir Guerrero zipped a base hit through the "5.5 hole," between third and short, off Justin Masterson in the Angels' eighth. Hunter then flared one, cozy against the right-field line, and Youkilis, originally a third baseman, bellyflopped to get it and couldn't. Without hesitating he scrambled to throw to third and get Guerrero. Two outs, man on first, and Masterson got Kendrick.

Then came the execution lesson, with 36-year-old Jason Varitek sacrificing Lowrie to second, and Ellsbury driving him home with a single in the ninth off Scot Shields. That extra run made it unnecessary for the Red Sox to try to win a 1-run game on the road. They have only done that twice this season.

Lester and Lowrie are 24, Ellsbury 25, Masterson 23 and the ever-present Dustin Pedroia are 25.

Too young to remember David Henderson and Donnie Moore.

Old enough to know that the Big A also stands for "Again."

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Los Angeles Angels MLB playoffs

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