It’s pretty obvious what corner the Angels are in now in the American League Championship Series.
“We don’t have a choice: Either we bounce back or we go home,” second baseman Adam Kennedy said.
That sums it up. The Angels are down three games to one in the best-of-seven competition and face elimination if they don’t string together a few hits against White Sox pitching that suddenly contains an entire rotation of Cy Young clones.
“Each guy is going to have to figure something out and bring it with them [Sunday],” Kennedy said, “because what we’re doing at the plate is not right.”
That’s an understatement.
The team as a whole is hitting .177. Only two batters have more than two hits.
“Everybody’s an individual,” left fielder Garret Anderson said. “To pick on one guy right now is not fair.”
Because of a lack of baserunners, or maybe because they sensed early Saturday the end is nearing, the Angels looked almost flat.
“We just haven’t hit,” Anderson said. “If that’s being flat, we’re flat. . . . Very obviously they’ve pitched well. They’re not making mistakes, and they’re living on the corners.”
Said Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher: “Those guys have a lot of movement on their pitches. They’re getting ahead in the count.”
And they’re getting big breaks from the umpires, at least in the Angels’ opinion.
There was, of course, the controversial call in the ninth inning of Game 2 in Chicago. And Saturday, the Angels felt they had several calls go against them, most notably in the second inning when Steve Finley hit into a double play. Even while on his way to first base, Finley squawked that Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski’s mitt had interfered with his swing.
If plate umpire Ron Kulpa had seen it, Finley would have been awarded first base, and the bases would have been full with one out and one run already in in a 3-1 game.
“Big,” Hatcher said of the non-call. “When a team gets on a roll, it seems all the breaks go their way.”
“We got a lucky break,” Pierzynski said. “What can I say?”
One of the reasons for the 3-1 deficit is that the Angels have been behind by three runs after the first inning. On Saturday the culprit was Ervin Santana–subbing for injured Bartolo Colon–who gave up a three-run homer to Paul Konerko.
“We’re going to have to take a little pressure off our pitchers and vice versa,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “I mean, we’ve been looking up at their dust for a while early in the games, and it’s tough for us to get the continuity to catch up right now with some bats soft.”
That kind of talk makes it seem like the Angels are a beaten team before they take the field Sunday, though last year the Red Sox fell behind three games to the Yankees and then won four straight.
“By no means is it over,” Scioscia said. “By no means is there anything that we’re not going to be able to do if we get into our game.”
But . . .
“But obviously the margin of error is kind of getting on the wrong side for us right now,” he admitted.
