Angles Playoff Devil Awaits Them Again
The Angels want to ignore their playoff history with the Red Sox. Good luck with that.
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BOSTON - OCTOBER 06: The Boston Red Sox celebrate as teammate Jason Bay #44 scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to win Game Four of the American League Championship Series on October 6, 2008 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox defeated the Angels 3-2 to advance to the ALCS. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it, so the saying goes. But the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim believe that they need to ignore history to get past it.
The Boston Red Sox are the bane of the Angels playoff existence. Three times in the last five seasons the Angels have met the Red Sox in the American League playoffs, three times the Angels were the team that went home. And it’s not close — the Sox are 9-1 against the Angels in those series.
Monday night the Angels wrapped up their third straight American League West title. That earned them their third straight first round series against Boston.
Torii Hunter doesn't believe in ghosts."I don't want to hear about the history and any so-called Red Sox jinxes and hexes," the Angels' center fielder and emotional leader said. "I wasn't here for any of that. I know we can play with those guys, and that's the way every guy on this team feels."
The good news for the Angels is that the Red Sox are not ghosts, they are flesh and blood mortals — and they have flaws.
Boston has some lingering injury issues. Two of their daunting staring pitchers — John Lester (right knee) and Josh Beckett (back) — have missed games and a number of other key players like Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis have nagging injuries they are trying to rest right now.
The Red Sox also have been terrible outside of Fenway Park — they are 39-42 on the road this season. The Angels, on the other hand, are 45-33 on the road and are fully capable of stealing a game in Boston.
The Angels, however, have what may be bigger problems than just the Red Sox curse. For example, their bullpen has struggled all season and that could mean big problems against the loaded lineup the Red Sox throw out nightly. Plus, the hitting that has carried the Angels this season has been streaky of late, and it can’t be in the playoffs.
In a best-of-five, anything can happen, and what happened in past years was to a different Angels team. But when the Red Sox are down two in the seventh inning and start to mount a comeback in this series, will the Angels really be able to ignore history then? That may decide how long they play into October.
