GANNETT CONTENTONE
Mike Lopresti: Gannett sports columnist
Originally published: October 18, 2009
Now Angels will see if home is where wins are
By MIKE LOPRESTI, Gannett
ANAHEIM, Calif. - No wind chill factor here. No playing with ear flaps and ski masks. If Mike Scioscia lumbers onto the field to debate a call with the second base umpire, it will not look like two Eskimos arguing.
The American League Championship Series has moved to where conditions are more suited for baseball and less the Iditarod.
"Trust me, there's nothing but positive energy going on in here," Torii Hunter said from the Los Angeles clubhouse on a lovely Sunday. "Over there (in New York's), too, I'm pretty sure."
Maybe getting back to summer can save the Angels. Maybe.
"Start all over," Scioscia said of the series, with the Yankees in control, 2-0. Fine, fine. But the Yankees probably won't be giving those victories back.
The two purported best teams in the American League committed eight errors in the first two games at Yankee Stadium. Some were more understandable than others. The one by Maicer Izturus that decided Game 2 in the wee hours of Sunday morning - trying an impossible to throw to second when he had an easy out at first - was brain freeze, not body freeze.
Still, fielding a baseball in those conditions must have been like trying to backhand a porcupine.
"Now cold weather is no excuse," Hunter said. "So let's see what happens."
Besides, he noted, the climate was awful for both teams in New York. Hunter said he realized how cold it was when he could see even Derek Jeter - quintessential New Yorker - was freezing.
Lots of things better get better here for the Angels. Quickly. "The momentum of this series can swing in a heartbeat," Scioscia said, but is that whistling by the Yankees champagne stash?
The Angels have much to get over by Monday. Game 2, there for the taking so many times with 16 runners left on base, was a crusher. After five hours of increasingly tense baseball, defeat came with an error. The language had to be bluer than the noses.
This a team renowned for the way it goes about its business. Angels baseball means sound defense, opportunistic offense, making every chance count.
So far, this hasn't been it.
"We've beaten ourselves," Hunter said.
Los Angeles hitters are 4-for-18 with runners in scoring position so far. You could call that fatal, except New York's hitters are 3-for-20.
The Yankees find a way, nevertheless. They have not yet lost a postseason game. They already have two walk-off victories. Alex Rodriguez has three home runs, and all of them either tied the game or put them in the lead, as he threatens to take over October lock, stock and Halloween.
On Monday, they'll send out Andy Pettitte, an October-hardened pitcher who has won 15 postseason games, tied with John Smoltz for the most ever.
"It doesn't get any easier, huh?" Hunter said.
Relentless pressure is a Yankee trademark. There is not just all that store-bought talent, but the aura of taking advantage of every mistake. It makes an opponent begin to think it can afford no wrong, or imperfection. The game is hard enough to play, especially in the ambience of a meat locker.
"I think you can let that history get in your mind," Hunter said. "You look at the payroll, at Yankee Stadium. You try to do too much."
So now what for the Angels?
"We've got to kind of calm it down a little bit."
They'd better do it by Monday.
"It's not who you're playing or where you're playing," Scioscia said. "It's how you're playing the game."
"I just have to leave the last two games in the past," said Bobby Abreu, 0-for-9 in the series. "Tomorrow is going to be a different day."
Different day, different ballpark, most definitely different weather. But the same opponent. There might be the problem.
Contact Mike Lopresti at mlopresti@gannett.com
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ABOUT MIKE
Quote: "Of course, I have to say who won. But I'd better say more. If not, I'm useless. They don't need me. I have to give readers something extra than what they've seen on TV. Or why read?"
Favorite sport: college basketball.
Career: Sportswriter, (Richmond, Ind.) Palladium-Item, 1970-1981; Gannett News Service and Gannett ContentOne, since 1982.
First GNS assignment: Super Bowl XVI.
Born: Richmond, Ind.
Ball State University graduate.
Married since 1976.
In the press box
World Series: 27
Final Four: 28
Super Bowl: 26
NBA Finals: 25
Masters: 25
Olympics: 14
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