The Angels got the monkey off their backs – only to run into King Kong.

The New York Yankees, baseball’s $200 million gorilla, ended the Angels’ post-season run with a 5-2 defeat in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series Sunday night.

The win sends the Yankees into the World Series for the 40th time in franchise history, this time against the Phillies.

For the Angels, the loss sends them into a winter of uncertainty with the list of potential free-agent departures including key players like Vladimir Guerrero, John Lackey, Chone Figgins and Bobby Abreu.

In the end, the Angels were done in by an offense that couldn’t keep up with Yankees’ deep lineup. They were outscored 32-18 in the six games and at the end their best hitter was … Jeff Mathis?

Mathis led off the third inning Sunday with his fifth double in the series. Two outs later, Abreu drove him in with an RBI single to right when Yankees starter Andy Pettitte hung an 0-and-1 curveball.

That was just about the only mistake Pettitte made in the game.

The Angels’ only other scoring threat against him came in the sixth inning after Pettitte retired the first two batters, the slumping Figgins and Abreu once again failing to set the table for the middle of the order. Torii Hunter beat out an infield single and went to third when Guerrero hit a pitch nearly off the ground and dropped it into right field for a double.

But Kendry Morales bounced back to the mound, Pettitte knocking it down near his face and throwing Morales out at first to end the inning.

Already the all-time leader in post-season starts and innings pitched, Pettitte became the winningest pitcher in post-season history (breaking a tie with John Smoltz at 15) by holding the Angels to just that one run on seven hits and a walk in 6 1/3 innings.

Angels starter Joe Saunders walked a tightrope through three innings to match Pettitte, stranding six runners on base in that time. But he tripped up in the fourth and never made it out.

With Mathis and Morales having given him a 1-0 lead, Saunders walked Robinson Cano to start the fourth then gave up a ground-ball single to left to Nick Swisher (batting .103 in the post-season when the game started).

Melky Cabrera bunted the runners over and Saunders walked Derek Jeter to load the bases. Johnny Damon singled in two runs to give the Yankees the lead and Mark Teixeira reloaded the bases on an infield single.

Working carefully to Alex Rodriguez, Saunders fell behind in the count 3-and-1 then threw a fastball at the knees. But home-plate umpire Dale Scott called it ball four, forcing in another run.

The walk was Saunders’ fifth in the game and Angels manager Mike Scioscia pulled him.

The game stayed close into the eighth thanks to Darren Oliver and Ervin Santana and the Angels briefly made it a one-run game, 3-2, when Guerrero drove in his seventh run of the post-season with a two-out RBI single off Mariano Rivera in the eighth.

It was the first post-season earned run off the Yankees closer since Game 2 of the 2000 World Series against the Mets.

But the momentum didn’t last. The Angels misplayed two bunts in the bottom of the eighth – Howie Kendrick dropped one throw and Scott Kazmir threw the other over Kendrick’s head – leading to two more Yankee runs without benefit of a hit. The errors were the seventh and eighth of the series by the Angels (seven in the three games at Yankee Stadium).

Discuss |

Email This

Angels Sweep Red Sox; Will face the Yankees in the ALCS
By JustAnotherHaloVicto on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 01:45 AM
news

Torii Hunter emerged from the visitors' clubhouse at Fenway Park to spray champagne over the fans and family gathered there. Erick Aybar did him one better, handing over bottles of bubbly to those who came from California to see the Los Angeles Angels go for the sweep.

History gave no reason to hope for such a celebration.

The Angels and Vladimir Guerrero shrugged off their postseason failures and swept away the Red Sox on Sunday, scoring three runs off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning to beat Boston 7-6 and advance to the AL Championship Series.

It was the first postseason sweep in Angels franchise history. And they did it against the team that has knocked them out of the playoffs the previous four times they met.

"I told you guys earlier: It's going to be a different scene," Hunter said in the clubhouse afterward. "Vladdy came through. That's probably one of the biggest hits of his career. They've been waiting for him to do it, and he did it."

Papelbon was one strike away from extending the series with three different batters, but Aybar singled on a two-strike pitch, Chone Figgins walked after fouling off a full-count offering and Bobby Abreu fouled off three straight pitches before doubling in one run.

Hunter was walked intentionally before Guerrero singled the first pitch to center and Figgins and Abreu raced home to give Los Angeles a 7-6 lead. Major league saves leader Brian Fuentes pitched the ninth, and when Aybar caught Dustin Pedroia's popup to end the game, pumping his right arm even as he tracked the ball with his left, the Angels advanced.

"It's nice to be going home and playing again, instead of going home and it's over," said pitcher John Lackey, who was part of the Angels teams that were eliminated by Boston in three times in the previous five years. "This is the most fun for me, and I've got a ring. That says a lot."

An eight-time All-Star and former AL MVP, Guerrero has a .321 career batting average, 407 regular-season homers and 1,318 RBIs. But he'd managed only one extra-base hit in 69 at-bats going into Game 3, and he had one RBI in 19 playoff games since his grand slam against Boston in the 2004 division series.

And he came through against Papelbon, who had never before allowed a run in 27 postseason innings.

"You're not going to get to him too often. But we did this afternoon," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "And I felt great for Vlad. hopefully, that's a momentum-builder for him. ... I know he's relieved. He's excited about contributing. And hopefully it will be the start of something good."

For the AL West champion Angels, it was a chance to extend their tribute to pitcher Nick Adenhart, who was killed in an April car crash with a man who has been charged with drunken driving. As they streamed out of the dugout to celebrate, and Jered Weaver carried Adenhart's jersey onto the field.

"When it comes down to honoring Nick Adenhart, and what happened in April in Anaheim, yes, it probably was the biggest hit [of my career]," Guerrero said. "Because I'm dedicating that to a former teammate, a guy that passed away."

The Angels open their first ALCS since 2005 on Friday against the New York Yankees, who beat the Twins 4-1 on Sunday night to complete a three-game sweep.

"We're finally here," said Angels owner Arte Moreno, who bought the team in 2003, a year after they won their only World Series. "I think that the fourth time's a charm. It's great for us, because we've been knocking on the door for a while."

Los Angeles trailed 5-1 early, was behind 5-2 after seven innings and still down 6-4 when Papelbon retired the first two batters of the ninth.

The crowd that just one inning earlier had been primed for a celebration quietly filed out of the ballpark for the last time in 2009, having seen the wild-card Red Sox beaten.

"The season doesn't wind down. It just comes to a crashing halt," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "You go into the top of the inning excited because you think you're going to keep playing. Half an inning later, you're going home. So it's disappointing."

The Red Sox had won 12 of 13 postseason games against the Angels heading into the series, including an 11-game winning streak that dated back to Dave Henderson's homer off Donnie Moore in the 1986 ALCS. Henderson, not coincidentally, threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Sunday, even adding a little jump and twist like the one he did after he helped propel Boston to within one strike of the '86 World Series title.

Hendu's shot in Game 5 sent the Red Sox to a win by the same 7-6 score.

Boston didn't win it that year, but they ended their 86-year championship drought in 2004 after sweeping Los Angeles in the first round. The Red Sox swept out the Angels again in '07 en route to a second title, and beat them in four games last year before losing to the Tampa Bay in the ALCS.

Darren Oliver earned the victory after getting one out in relief, and Papelbon took his first career postseason loss. The Red Sox closer had converted seven of his previous eight postseason save opportunities.

But after Billy Wagner put two on with two out in the eighth, the Red Sox were forced to bring Papelbon in with a 5-2 lead. He gave up a two-run single to Juan Rivera that made 5-4 before picking pinch-runner Reggie Willits off first base.

After Mike Lowell's RBI single made it 6-4 in the eighth, Papelbon got Maicer Izturis on a foul popup and Gary Matthews Jr. on a fly ball to center. Abreu lined a double off the Green Monster to cut the lead to 6-5.

The three runs Boston scored in the third inning were more than it had scored in the first two games of the series combined. In fact, Boston had scored a total of two runs in 32 postseason innings before taking a 3-0 lead on Sunday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=291011102

Discuss |

Email This

Adenhart's death shocks baseball
By JustAnotherHaloVicto on Friday, April 10, 2009 - 07:46 PM
news

The baseball world will remember Nick Adenhart in eternal prospect mode -- easing into his smooth delivery, snapping off that hammer curveball and competing with a relentless edge that made him seem so seasoned and mature for one so young.

Teammates, of course, stockpile their own memories, and Brandon Wood's mind will flash back to a different image: That of Adenhart, his buddy, walking around the clubhouse with his headphones on, immersed in the latest hip-hop music that he'd just downloaded.

Last year, when the two players were teammates with Triple-A Salt Lake, Wood needed a "walkout'' song to herald his arrival from the on-deck circle to the batter's box. He mentioned it to Adenhart, the human iTunes catalog, who immediately hooked him up with something from The Notorious B.I.G. selection. If that's not a bonding moment, nothing is.

Fate, injuries and the vicissitudes of roster management put some distance between the two players this spring. When the Angels broke camp out of Arizona, Adenhart traveled to Anaheim with the big club, and Wood left for Salt Lake to play third base for the Bees. He was watching on TV on Wednesday night when Adenhart threw six shutout innings against Oakland, and a little voice inside him told him he'd just witnessed something special.

"I think [Wednesday] was the start of something that could have been great,'' Wood said. "I actually went to bed thinking, 'Nick is never going to see the minor leagues again.'''

It was on the way to the gym Thursday morning that Wood received a text message from a friend in Arizona.

"Have you heard about Adenhart? Is it true?'' the message read.

When Wood connected to the Internet through his cell phone, it didn't take long to confirm his sense of foreboding.

The tragic reality: Nick Adenhart was killed along with two other passengers in a hit-and-run traffic accident in Fullerton, Calif., early Thursday. And the sense of shock and numbness that Wood felt in the aftermath had very little to do with Adenhart's promise on the ballfield.

"It's hard to even believe,'' Wood said. "I never met a person who didn't like Nick.''

As news of Adenhart's passing spread, tributes and condolences rolled in from throughout the game. There were words of sympathy from the Players Association, Davey Johnson and Paul Seiler of Team USA baseball, commissioner Bud Selig and numerous big league clubs.

But the despair was particularly acute in Anaheim, where owner Arte Moreno has prided himself on the kind of continuity that fosters a family atmosphere.

"I've never had this kind of pain in my stomach,'' said Angels scouting director Eddie Bane. "Tears come down your face and they just don't stop. As adults, we think we're bulletproof sometimes, and we're not. It hurts, that's all.''

The postmortems in coming days will inevitably focus on Adenhart's baseball skills and seemingly limitless future in pro ball. He had cracked the big league roster at age 22, and seemed destined for a long, successful run at the front of the Angels' rotation.

He had come so far already, in part because of an almost dual persona off the field and between the lines. Nick Adenhart the person loved to laugh and he embraced the banter and camaraderie of the clubhouse. Nick Adenhart the pitcher was supremely confident and took no prisoners.

Alan Matthews, a scout for the Colorado Rockies, was covering high schools for Baseball America magazine in the spring of 2004 when Adenhart, a product of Williamsport High in Maryland, emerged as one of the top prep prospects in the nation. Adenhart, Mark Rogers of Maine and Jay Rainville of Rhode Island made for an unusually abundant pitching crop from the Northeast.

"He had a remarkable mound demeanor,'' Matthews said of Adenhart. "He was always very calm and collected regardless of the number of scouts who were behind the plate. He was very laid-back and kind of quietly confident when you talked to him. But he would cut your heart out when he was on the mound and he needed to make a pitch or get an out.''

At the high school showcases, Adenhart was polite and respectful to the scouts, and intent on proving he was the best. He warmed to the big stage and the scrutiny that resulted from his status as an elite prospect.

That was never more evident than in Jupiter, Fla., at the Perfect Game World Wood Bat Championships. Adenhart was going head-to-head with Eric Hurley, another highly touted prospect, and one particular incident made a big impression on the scouts. It also stuck with University of North Carolina recruiting coordinator Chad Holbrook, who was working hard to make Adenhart a Tar Heel.

"Some kid tried to show him up, and the next pitch was 95 right by his ear hole,'' said Holbrook, now associate head coach at South Carolina. "When you talked to Nick, you didn't have the sense he had that in him. But there were 100 scouts there watching, and when he buzzed that poor kid, they were like, 'Whoa.' You knew who was in control.''

Adenhart, a 3.2 grade point average student with 1240 SAT scores in high school, planned to attend North Carolina, where he would have joined a rotation with pro prospects Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard. He visited the Chapel Hill campus during his senior year, attended a UNC-Duke basketball game and met the Tar Heel players, who warmed to him immediately.

Adenhart blew out his right elbow in May of his senior year and underwent Tommy John surgery before his 18th birthday, but that didn't scare off the Angels. Bane and area scout Dan Radcliff were convinced Adenhart would recover and be a front-of-the-rotation guy, and the Angels selected him in the 14th round and gave him a $710,000 signing bonus to dissuade him from attending college.

Holbrook still remembers the day when Adenhart called with the bittersweet news that he would be forsaking a UNC scholarship to turn pro.

"He was sort of sad to call me,'' Holbrook said. "He was worried what I would think, or if we would be mad at him. He had this dream of being a major league pitcher, but he didn't want to let anybody down. As hard as it was for him to call and tell us he was going to sign a professional contract, he did it the right way.''

There would be fits and starts to Adenhart's professional career. While the Angels exercised patience, Adenhart was intent on moving quickly through the chain. Last season was particularly challenging, with too many walks, a 9-13 record and a 5.76 ERA in Salt Lake.

But certain things remained constant. Adenhart's demeanor suggested a laid-back, Southern California "dude'' in the clubhouse. Then the game began, and he was all business.

"He had these puppy dog eyes,'' Bane said. "But on the mound, he was an assassin.''

If this brings even a smidge of comfort, Adenhart's performance in a 6-4 loss to Oakland marked a fitting epitaph to his baseball career. In the early innings, he fell behind several A's hitters and struggled with his command. But somewhere around the 60-pitch count, he developed a feel for his changeup and began mowing through the Oakland batting order.

"He battled his way through,'' said an American League scout who was at the game. "It was a testament to his toughness.''

Adenhart's friends and former teammates in the Angels' organization might need a bit of that toughness to get through this ordeal. His close friends in Salt Lake include outfielder Brad Coon, who invited Adenhart to be a groomsman at his wedding this offseason, and Wood, who was Adenhart's roommate during the Olympic qualifying team's trip to Cuba in 2006.

"Our beds were like three inches apart, and we were the only guys who didn't move them away from each other,'' Wood said. "We were like, 'Hey, this must be how it works.'''

Wood laughed at the memory, then braced for what's to come.

"There are a lot of people who are going to feel pretty down going to the park today,'' he said. "This is going to hit home in all the clubhouses.''

More than words can say.

Discuss |

Email This

Angels 2008 Spring Training Schedule
By Dave on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 12:48 PM
news

Here is the Los Angeles Angels 2008 Spring Training Schedule. The first game starts in a little more than a week on February 28th, and the final Spring Training game is set to take place on March 29.

---

Thursday, Feb. 28 RANGERS TEMPE 1:05 TV: MLB.TV
Friday, Feb. 29 Rangers Surprise 1:05
Saturday, March 1 CUBS TEMPE 1:05
Sunday, March 2 Brewers Maryvale 1:05
Monday, March 3 ATHLETICS TEMPE 1:05
Tuesday, March 4 White Sox Tucson (TEP) 1:05
Wednesday, March 5 Mariners Peoria 1:05
Thursday, March 6 GIANTS TEMPE 1:05
Friday, March 7 WHITE SOX TEMPE 1:05
Saturday, March 8 GIANTS (ss) TEMPE 1:05
Saturday, March 8 Rockies (ss) Tucson (Hi Corbett) 1:05
Sunday, March 9 RANGERS TEMPE 1:05
Monday, March 10 ATHLETICS TEMPE 1:05
Tuesday, March 11 Padres Peoria 1:05
Wednesday, March 12 ROYALS TEMPE 1:05
Thursday, March 13 Cubs Mesa 1:05
Friday, March 14 Cubs Mesa 1:05
Saturday, March 15 DIAMONDBACKS TEMPE 1:05
Sunday, March 16 Cubs (ss) Mesa 1:05
Sunday, March 16 Giants (ss) Scottsdale 1:05
Monday, March 17 OFF DAY
Tuesday, March 18 Athletics Phoenix 7:05
Wednesday, March 19 BREWERS TEMPE 12:00
Thursday, March 20 GIANTS TEMPE 1:05
Friday, March 21 Rangers Surprise 6:05 TV: KCOP
Saturday, March 22 Royals Surprise 1:05
Sunday, March 23 MARINERS TEMPE 1:05 TV: PRIME
Monday, March 24 PADRES TEMPE 1:05 TV: FSN
Tuesday, March 25 Diamondbacks Tucson (TEP) 1:05
Wednesday, March 26 CUBS TEMPE 1:05 TV: FSN
Thursday, March 27 ROCKIES (ss) TEMPE 12:05
Thursday, March 27 Dodgers (ss) Anaheim 7:05 TV: FSN
Friday, March 28 Padres San Diego 7:05 TV: KCOP
Saturday, March 29 Padres Anaheim 6:05 TV: FSN

TEP = Tempe Stadium
ss = split squad game
All times Pacific

Discuss |

Email This