The Ticket Chest

Maybe it isn’t over just yet?! Angels Prolong ALCS with Thrilling 7-6 Win over Yankees

Friday, October 23rd, 2009 | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Sports | No Comments

Talk about a gutsy performance – I was shocked (on so many different levels) to see the Angels defeat the Yankees 7-6 to push the ALCS back to the Bronx for Game 6 on Saturday night.

First:  I could not believe how the Angels jumped out to a 4-0 lead before even recording their 1st out in the 1st inning.  Torii Hunter’s big 2-run single seemed to relax the rest of the team and electrify the Angels fans.  The place went nuts, and when Vladimir Guerrero and Kendry Morales got hits to drive in 2 more runs, I thought I was back on the east coast in Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium.  That set the tone for what looked to be an easy Angels win.

Second:  But then it all went wrong in the 7th inning.  John Lackey, who had allowed just 5 hits to the Yankees through 6 innings, seemed to implode.  After Lackey got the 1st out, he gave up a double to Melky Cabrera.  Lackey thought he had struck out Jorge Posada, but the home plate umpire called the 3-2 pitch a ball – instead of man on 2nd 2 outs, it was now 1st and 2nd with just 1 out.  Lackey lost all focus when he walked Derek Jeter to load the bases, and even after he got the 2nd out of the inning on a Johnny Damon fly out, Manager Mike Scioscia opted to go with a lefty reliever – Darren Oliver – to turn Mark Teixeira around to his “weaker” right side of the plate.  Teixeira ended up delivering a 3-run double that cut the Angels lead to 1.  After intentionally walking Alex Rodriguez, Oliver served up a Hideki Matsui run-scoring single that tied the game at 4.  The Angels still had a chance to get out of the inning all even, but another Scioscia move backfired when K Jepsen gave up a rocket triple to Robinson Cano that brought home 2 runs to give the Yankees a 6-4 lead.  You could have heard a pin drop in the stadium as the Yankees players were going nuts in their dugout.  Game over, right?  No way the Angels could rebound from this disaster – they would go quietly with their final 9 outs and the Yankees would advance to yet another World Series to take on the Philadelphia Phillies who had already disposed of the Los Angeles Dodgers in ho-hum 5-game NLCS for the 2nd year in a row.

Third:  A.J. Burnett has settled down after his awful 1st inning, but he let 2 Angels reach base to start the bottom of the 7th inning, and it was Manager Joe Girardi’s turn to remove his starter for a bad reliever.  Damaso Marte gave up a sacrifice to Chone Figgins and then got Bobby Abreu to ground out for the 2nd run of the inning.  The Angels scored a run to cut the lead to 6-5, but there 2 outs and Phil Hughes could get that final out for the Yankees.  Think again…  Hughes promptly walked Torii Hunter to put the go-ahead run on base.  Then he gave up Vladimir Guerrero’s game-tying single that scored Erick Aybar.  Kendry Morales then drove in Hunter with the go-ahead run to give the Angels a 7-6 lead, but would it be enough.

Fourth:  Brian Fuentes had blown a save before in the series – on A-Rod’s solo home run way back in the 11th inning of Game 2 that the Yankees ultimately won in 13 innings.  Fuentes had to go through the heart of the Yankees order 2-3-4 to record the save.  But the baseball gods wouldn’t let the Angels get this far just to have Fuentes blow it, would they?!  Well Fuentes sure made it interesting, even after he recorded the 1st 2 outs of the inning.  Fuentes then intentionally walked A-Rod – great move Scioscia (seriously!) – but then he walked Matsui and hit Cano to load the bases.  What in the hell is going on here?  Here we go again – another come-from-behind win for the Yankees as we are forced to listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver get all goo-goo over how good the Yankees are at erasing leads late in games.  But my prayers were answered – Fuentes got Nick Swisher to pop out to left field and the Angels lived to see another day.

And I get another day (2 actually) to hope that the Yankees somehow blow this 3 games to 1 lead over the Angels to let the Angels battle the Phillies in the 2009 World Series.  Gotta love October baseball…

Tags: A.J. Burnett, ALCS, Alex Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes, John Lackey, Kendry Morales, Mark Teixeira, Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero, World Series