Choke Job

It is most certainly in their heads now. The Angels cannot win in Boston, and after Wednesday night’s ultra-choke job, they may not win again this season.  Clearly the Angels need to exercise the Red Sox demon.  Clearly they cannot.  Even though it was a regular season game, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim may have lost the first round of their playoff series on the night of Wednesday, September 16th.  The Angels seem to enjoy practicing a more sadistic form of auto-asphyxia than the high school librarian by day and dominatrix by night, except this kind aren’t for anyone’s eroticism or pleasure except Boston’s.

The Angels took a 3-0 lead into the 6th, and had bases loaded before they failed to capitalize on a giant opportunity.  That’s because the Angels, and the umpire once again, found a way to give Boston 4 and 5 outs in some innings, including this one.  On a sure fire double play, Erick Aybar pulled the ball from his glove after he caught it and touched the bag to turn to first base.  He dropped the ball on the transfer, and the umpire called Boston runner safe at second, even though he was clearly out.  This lead to Boston putting up 5 runs in the 6th.

The Angels came back and get 4 more runs to take a 7-5 lead, again failing to capitalize by leaving the bases loaded with only 1 out.  Boston came back to tie it in the 8th.  The Angels continued to fight, and get a run in the top of the 9th.

But all year, the Angels’ bullpen has been an atrocity.  Most Angel fans would be thrilled to have Jeff Byrd at this point.  A closer means he closes out the game when he comes in with a lead.  Fuentes is 1-5 with 7 blown saves, a 4.41 ERA and 1.45 WHIP.  Those are numbers a minor leaguer should have.  Signing Brian Fuentes for 2 years and having him make 60% more than Bobby Abreau (.302, 13hr, 96 RBI, 29 sb) is an absolute travesty.  People can talk about how many saves he has or has had, but saves are the most misleading statistic in baseball.  You can enter a game with a 3-run lead and allow 2 runs to score and still get a “save”.  And he has done that quite a bit this year, and throughout his whole career.

So it’s the 9th, ENTER SORRY ASS BRIAN FUENTES.  He gets lucky with 2 balls that were hit on the screws for 2 outs.  But he then throws 6 straight balls, and if not for 2 great defensive plays by Figgins and Aybar on hard-hit balls, the game would have been lost.  But inevitably, he would find a way to lose it anyway.  The bases were now loaded, and Fuentes had Nick Green down in the count 0-2, he made a 3rd strike on a check swing that the 1st base ump said was no-swing when he was appealed to (Green even showed great disappointment as he shook his head and cringed in disgust after the check swing, but apparently his admission of guilt meant nothing to the umpire).  The bases were loaded with 2 out, and after a 0-2 count Fuentes worked the count full, and walked in the tying run on a strike that was called a ball, even though it was clearly over the plate and at the knees. It’s always nice when Boston batter get 5 or 6 strikes in an at-bat.

Alexi Ramirez was the next batter, and hit a flair to left for the game winner.

Some Angel fans are preaching this morning, including phrases such as, “Stand by your team”, or, “Its still the regular season”, and “We’ll make the playoffs”.  Those same people exhibit the same type of complacency that think second place is a good finish. Except the Angels haven’t finished second in a while either.  ”Making the playoffs” is for perennial underachievers. The Angels have proven they can make the playoffs year after year.  Its time now to win.  If you want to be the Atlanta Braves and win the division 14 years and get 1 World Series, I question your passion.  Angel fans should find this whole situation completely UNACCEPTABLE, if they want to call their team a winner.  HOLD SOME PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE, and quit making excuses.

True, there were 3 bad calls, but the ANGELS had the bases loaded twice in 3 innings with one out and didn’t score, had a 3-run lead in the 6th, a 2-run lead in the 7th, and a 1-run lead in the 9th with 2 outs and 2 strikes, facing a couple scrubs at the plate.   That’s more than enough to handle your business, even with bad calls.

Now the ultimate question for Angel fans.  Is Wednesday night’s loss irrecoverable?  We’ll find out in October.