Visits: 6
What was LA’s Story? Red Sox Sweep!
By Peter Schiller
Let’s be real here, with the Angels injuries that they had going into this series to Colon, Matthews, Anderson (although he did play some, but was obviously hampered), Vlad had to carry this team & the Boston pitching & coaching staff knew it! They gave him almost nothing to hit all series & given what he’ll swing at, that’s saying a lot! Vlad went only 2 for 10 with no RBI’s & no HR’s. In fact, as a team, the Angels hit only .192 with an OBP of .250 and a SLG of .253
Those stats wouldn’t have beat the Royals, Devil Rays or Pirates, let alone the Red Sox! They were out homered 5 to 0 & couldn’t get their running attack going due to their lack of getting on base.
Beckett set the pace in game one with a gem of a game! His third, postseason, complete game shutout! By the way, he only has 2 in his more than 150 starts in the regular season! Likewise, in game three, Schilling showed that all that data collection he does on batters pays off when you can no longer rely on just your fastball to blow people away to get outs! It has helped him to become, like Greg Maddux, the thinking man’s pitcher. It doesn’t hurt to have the heart of a warrior either. Recall his last postseason win prior to this was 2004’s bloddy sock game that is now infamous.
In closing, it’s hard to keep Bostone off the board when Manny & Ortiz are hot! Just loot at these stats from the ALDS:
Ortiz: 5 for 7 for a .714 batting average, 2 HR’s, 3 RBI’s & 11 total bases with 6 walks (all intentional – setting an ALDS record) for an OBP of a monsterous .846 while slugging 1.571 (that’s a 2.418 OPS)!
Manny: 3 for 8 for a .375 batting average, 2 HR’s, 4 RBI’s & 9 total bases with 5 walks for an OBP of .615 while slugging 1.125 (that’s a 1.740 OPS)!
Tune in next for my wrap up of the New York – Cleveland series!
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