The Angels Guardian Fails Them

Congrats to the Tampa Bay Rays for advancing in their first playoff series ever. My sincere condolences to the Halos for blowing it in Boston tonight. The games were as amazing and exciting as can be. They were what October baseball was all about. But it became quite clear to me that the hated Red Sox are the better team. They’re deeper, more skilled and stronger in every way possible. So, they only won 95 games while the Cherubim won 100. The Red Sox played in the formidable AL East and the Angels played in the weak AL West. Yes, the Halos outplayed the Bosox head to head, but that means very little in the Fall. When they lost the first 2 in Anaheim, they were essentially done. They played tentative, crappy, dumb ball. Howie Kendrick played tight and clearly didn’t want to be out there. (Why Mike Scioscia contuned to send Kendrick and Aybar out there every game is beyond me) Garret Anderson evidently retired before the series started and just didn’t bother to tell anyone. Vladimir Guerrero is simply a bad player come playoff time, with one lousy home run back in ’04 in countless at bats in the post season. In yesterday’s game, Kendrick let his team down with his awful play behind second base, where he simply let Ellsbury’s pop up drop, allowing 3 runs to score. Torii Hunter, the class act that he is, took the blame, but Kendrick was under the damn ball. They were very fortunate that Mike Napoli carried them on his shoulders to their first win against Boston in the post season in 12 tries, but today, it was a collective failure. The great Mike Scioscia was outmanaged by Terry Francona (who resembles a grown up Charlie Brown) When Kendry Morales doubled to lead off the top of the 9th in a 3-3- tie, he had Kendrick bunt him to 2nd. Okay, I agree with that move. All Erick Aybar has to do is hit a fly to the outfield or get one past a drawn in infield to allow the speedy pinch runner, Reggie Willits to score from 3rd. But Scioscia wanted Aybar to squeeze in the go ahead run. The problem with that was, everyone in the ballpark – the announcers, the fans, the users, and most importantly, everyone wearing a Red Sox uniform – knew they were going to squeeze. Masterson’s first 2 pitches to Aybar were way inside to prevent him from bunting. Once Scioscia saw the Red Sox clearly recongnized the squeeze was a distinct possibility and they were taking steps to foil it, he should have called it off and let Aybar swing the bat. But no. That stubborn fat dude wouldn't budge. Next pitch to Aybar is low and in – a difficult pitch to bunt. He misses it completely and Willits is hung out to dry. (And, no, Varitek had the ball securely in his mitt when he made the tag) No runs score and Shields (who should’ve been removed after the hard line drive that was speared by Teixeira) loses the game in the bottom of the 9th. What a way to end a season and how I despise the Red Sox and their obnoxious fans. All 500 billion of them. Scisoscia is a great, great skipper, but he sure is set in his ways and in the end, that stubbornness really hurt his club and their fans. The Angels have a lot of decisions to make. The first one they should make is promote Jose Arredondo - who costs nothing – to closer and let K Rod and his 62 saves go elsewhere. That way they can afford to pay Teixeira and maybe go out and get one more bat. I have spoken.