As the Halos get ready for Game 1 of the ALDS on Wednesday at Fenway Park, I'm looking forward to a the big Angels rally at The Big A tomorrow (Monday). Ireland is on "Kobe Watch" - it's Lakers media day and then on a plane to Hawaii - so I'll be doing The Big Show under "the hats" with 710 ESPN Senior Reporter Dave Denholm and "man-on-the-street" Jason Pohlman.
The Angels won 2 outta 3 at Oakland over the weekend, but they did lose to the A's 3-2 in the regular season finale Sunday. If you were watching the Halos' 2-0 win on Friday night, you might have seen this priceless moment from Vlad Guerrero.
Much has been made of the fact that the Red Sox have "had the Angels' number" the last couple of years. Maybe the Sox "have their number," but they, by no means, "own" the Halos. Boston won 6 of 10 this year, but the 2 teams split the season series at 3 games apiece in 2006.
Over the past 4 regular seasons, Boston has a 20-15 record against the Angels, but if you include the 2004 ALDS, a Red Sox sweep, the record runs to 23-15.
Only 8 Halos who played in that 3-game Sox sweep are still on the roster. Gone are guys like David Eckstein, Troy Glaus, Benjie Molina, Kevin Gregg and Jarrod Washburn.
Here are the 2004 ALDS stats for the 8 current Angels who were part of Boston's sweep.
HITTERS
Garrett Anderson - 13AB - 2H - 0RBI - 3K - .154BA
Chone Figgins - 14AB - 2H - 0RBI - 5K - .143BA
Vlad Guerrero - 12AB - 2H - 1HR - 6RBI - 4K - .167BA
Casey Kotchman - 1AB - 0H - 0RBI - 0K - .000BA
PITCHERS
Bartolo Colon - 1G - 0-0 - 6IP - 7H - 3ER - 3W - 3K - 4.50ERA
Kelvim Escobar - 1G - 0-0 - 3 1/3IP - 5H - 3ER - 5W - 4K - 8.10ERA
Scot Shields - 2G - 0-0 - 3IP - 5H - 2ER - 2W - 3K - 6.00ERA
Francisco Rodriguez - 2G - 0-2 - 4 2/3IP - 4H - 2ER - 3W - 5K - 3.86ERA
The Angels were blown out of that 5 game series and were outscored 25-12....and the Halos had home field advantage. Schilling shut them down in Game 1, Frankie entered a tie game and lost game 2, and Jarrod Washburn gave up David Ortiz's walk-off homer in the finale at Fenway.
LAA has been so great at home this year, so home field might have made a difference, but they'll have to find a way. It almost definitely must start with a split of the first 2 games in Boston.
More analysis soon.
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