Bitter Angels

One of the many stories on espn about last night's game...

"It's way different than last year," said Lackey, who was 0-1 with a 2.63 ERA in two starts this postseason. "We are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us."

Then Lackey was asked to describe the feeling in the clubhouse, and without hesitation and with clear irritation, he shot back, "like I want to throw somebody through a wall."

He was not joking, his anger palpable. Lackey pitched admirably, allowing two runs in seven innings on Monday night. Boston scored both in the fifth inning, the first on a groundout by Jacoby Ellsbury and the second on a double to left field by Dustin Pedroia, who recorded his first and only hit of the entire series. Lackey was unimpressed.

"[On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke," said Lackey, referring to a popup that was misplayed into three runs. "[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia's] fist-pumping on second like he did something great.

noternie’s editorial comment:

Consider that the Angels finished the regular season with a record only 5 games better than the Red Sox. And this while playing in a division in which they were the ONLY team over .500. The Red Sox played in a division in which all but one team finished with a record better than .500. Way better, John? Hardly.

Consider that the Angles, who have always been touted as a team that wins by doing the little things right, did big things wrong; major baserunning gaffes, horrendous fielding and over-managing that led cost them the go ahead run in the ninth inning of a game that resulted in their elimination.

Consider that one of the wins in this series was the result of the “best closer in the game” getting shelled. And that two of the three Red Sox wins came in Mr. Lackey’s home ballpark.

Maybe, Mr. Lackey, the play of the Angels was something of a joke. Maybe the Red Sox played “way better” than the Angles, rather than talking about who was “not as good as us” as a philosophical exercise. Talking about the field is dumb, since both teams actually played on the same field together in each of the four games.

It must be frustrating to Mr. Lackey to be on a team that is so good…and so suddenly irrelevant.