2 down, 9 to go.
What an absolutely heart wrenching game last night!!! First the Boston Red Sox get out to a 4-0 lead the 1st inning and the Daisuke Matsuzaka goes out and gives 1 run back. Then the Red Sox go out and get a run in the 4th only to see Dice-K give another one back. The Angels would chip away at the lead eventually tying it up in the 8th inning only to see J.D. Drew hit a 2-run home run to keep that awfully large elephant on their back in the 9th inning.
The loss for the Angels was their 11th straight to the Red Sox in the postseason dating back to 1986. While the 1986 games may not be a factor in the Angels thinking, you know that the games of 2004, 2007 and now 2008 weigh heavily on their minds. This brings the question, can the Angels ever beat the Red Sox in the postseason.
The Angels dominated the series this season winning 8-of-9 and so far in the postseason they are 0-2 against the mighty Red Sox as the worst president of our lifetime George W. Bush would call them. And now things won’t get any easier for the Angels as they will face the Red Sox ace in Josh Beckett who came through his side session on Thursday with flying colors.
All it takes is one more win and the Red Sox head the ALCS for the second straight season. And by chance if Beckett can’t get it done on Sunday night at Fenway, then Jon Lester is waiting in the wings to take the Red Sox to the promised land.
Before this series even started, there was a chance that J.D. Drew would not have played at all do to his back. Now he’s the hero of Game 2.
“Yeah, absolutely. I thought at some point I was going to have shut it down and just watch the team through the playoffs,” Drew said. “It was nice to be out there and participate. Trying to get everything into playing shape while you’re in the playoffs isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it’s working out and my legs are coming back underneath me and I’m trying to grind out at-bats, play good defense, and see what happens.”
“Yeah, absolutely. I thought at some point I was going to have shut it down and just watch the team through the playoffs,” Drew said. “It was nice to be out there and participate. Trying to get everything into playing shape while you’re in the playoffs isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it’s working out and my legs are coming back underneath me and I’m trying to grind out at-bats, play good defense, and see what happens.”
Links from the Boston and Los Angeles area media after the jump.
It was a typical Dice-K outing last night.
Terry Francona agonized over the decision to rest Mike Lowell in Game 2.
Would the 2002 Angels team have won last night’s game?
Jason Bay is enjoying his first trip to the postseason.
Torii Hunter’s night was full of ups and downs.
The Red Sox have a rich history in Game 3 in the ALDS.
Angels skipper Mike Scioscia says his team isn’t playing to their potential.
Terry Francona and Mike Timlin had a conversation about Timlin’s role should the Red Sox advance.
Unless a miracle happens, the Angels won’t be playing in Anaheim again this season and neither could Francisco Rodriguez.
Jason Varitek is a big key to the Red Sox pitchers’ success.
Jacoby Ellsbury checked in over on his blog.
For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.
And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out the LA Times, Orange County Register and LA Daily News websites.
who would have thought j.d. drew was going to be our hero last night….i thought between the annoying announcers dice -k giving me fits and coco almost getting picked off well it didn’t look to good….if anything for all of k-rod 64 saves it doesn’t look good when you you give up the winning tater two years in row on the second game of alds ….lets get it done sunday
Ian, it’s nice to see the beginning of this post say exactly what was in my mind as I fell asleep last night — 2 down, 9 to go. How exciting! Let’s move those numbers along on Sunday…
K-Rod’s saves are up but his velocity is down, his K/9 is down, his strike/ball ratio is down. K-Rod is still a great pitcher, yet he is not the dominant force he was a few years back.
Got to love the fact that the hobbled J.D. Drew got to play the role of hero. It wasn’t quite Kurt Gibson territory, but I was jumping around like a maniac nonetheless.
Great minds think alike ecl.
The scary thing is that’s supposed to be the #1 announcing team for TBS. I’d much rather have Dick Stockton or even Orsillo and Harold Reynolds. Those two seem like they’ve worked together for years.
We really shouldn’t be surprised by Dice-K’s outing last night. He’s been doing that to us all year long. It’s when things are going right for him that we should be really bothered. Granted it’s nerve wracking.
Most definitely Pandyora. I also really think it affects closers when they come in and it’s not a save situation. We’ve seen it with Papelbot at times this season. All K-Rod’s season is going to do for him is get him paid for the foreseeable future.
Think about this, if Beckett can get the job done, it’s highly conceivable that he could start Game 1 of the ALCS since it starts next Friday and he would be making that on regular rest. And if not, you can have Lester in Game 1, Beckett in Game 2 and then Dice-K in game 3.
Dick Stockton is going senile. He was awful in the Dodgers-Cubs series constantly forgetting what inning it is, the score, who was in the field, what out it was, etc. Dick has seen better days it’s time to put him down.
I didn’t really watch much of either National League series. My real watching won’t start until the NLCS and that’s only if the Red Sox are in the ALCS.
Like I said above, Orsillo and Reynolds seem like they’ve worked together for years.