Sox-Angels Game 3 pregame II
Oct 5th, 2008 by Bill Burt
Here are 10 pregame notes worth mentioning:
1. The Angels are the first team since 1931 to win 100 games with a 100-RBI or 30-HR player.
2. In case you were wondering about successful playoff experience, the Angels have five players (Garret Anderson, John Lackey, Francisco Rodriguez, Scot Shields and Chone Figgins) who were members of the World Series championship team in 2002.
3. The Red Sox are 4-0 in playoff series against the Angels.
4. Heard this in media men’s room from a reporter who was in Los Angeles for last night’s NLDS between the Dodgers and Cubs: “A Cubs player broke a pipe in the tunnel to the clubhouse and it bursted, flooding the tunnel area. One Dodgers official said it will cost thousands to fix.”
5. Angels manager Mike Scioscia was asked if he heard Lou Pineilla’s comments from last night that this team, which like the Angels led the league in wins, didn’t play the same baseball it played in regular season.
Respectfully, Scioscia shot back: “Well, first of all, we’re not getting eliminated tonight, so I’m not going to answer that question. And we’ll talk about that if it comes up, because we’re not going to talk about it now.”
6. The Red Sox are 3-0 in closeout games in the post-season since 2004. The last time they didn’t finish the job was Game 7 in New York with Grady Little and, well, you remember.
7. The pressure is on Angels outfielder Howie Kendrick. The L.A. Times had piece in today’s paper stating they are two Hendrick hits away from leading the series 2-0. Hendrick is 0-for-9 in the two games.
8. The pressure is apparently on Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, too, who led the majors with 62 saves. F-Rod refused to meet with the media after the Game 2 loss (he gave up the two-run homer to J.D. Drew) and then at yesterday’s workouts.
9. Correction: In today’s story in The Eagle-Tribune I wrote the Josh Beckett was 6-0 in his post-season career. He is 6-2. But there is a catch. Both of the losses were in 2003. He gave up two runs in a 6-1 loss over 7 1/3 innings in the NLCS versus the Cubs and only one run over seven innings against the Giants in the NLDS, losing 2-0. The point is even in defeat he has been very, very good. Sorry about that.
10. Red Sox pitchers can’t stop Mark Teixeira and manager Terry Francona wasn’t afraid to admit it: “We haven’t figured it out yet. Everything he swings at, he’s hitting. He hit a ball neck high the other day. We didn’t want to let a guy like that start feeling good about himself, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s getting to everything right now. They’ve always created problems because of their speed and aggressiveness. You put some guys like Torii Hunter in the middle of the lineup along with Teixeira, and you give them a different look, and it makes them more dangerous.” Teixeira is 5-for-7. But the one problem is he has only one RBI and no extra base hits. While Francona didn’t admit it, Teixeira hitting singles ain’t such a killer.
