Injuries and Lack of Offense Derail Angels

Oct 07, 09:50 PM

Current Headlines: ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Stanford 24, USC 23.

Only one miracle allowed per weekend.

The Los Angeles Angels' quest to win this division series officially became the equivalent of hunting Moby Dick with a cane pole.

It happened when Casey Kotchman came up sick and when Garret Anderson, having failed to pick up Mike Lowell's second-inning double near the left-field line, had to be removed.

That meant Reggie Willits was suddenly the No.4 hitter Sunday, and when he fouled out with the bases loaded in the third _ a "cutter in," he said, from Curt Schilling _ most illusions were allowed to vanish.

Boston led 2-0 after seven and then partied for seven in the eighth, and when the Red Sox gloved the final out of this 9-1 victory on this sleepy afternoon, they seemed more in need of Red Bull than champagne.

In the home clubhouse, the Angels did their goodbye handshakes and answered self-evident questions. This was only one of the division series sweeps, but it was the most transparent.

"No hitting, and we didn't execute," Orlando Cabrera said briskly, organizing his gear.

"We lost Garret, and it was tough to protect Vladdy (Guerrero)," Jered Weaver said, "and then we lost Kotchman, too. It's not an excuse, but when it's the playoffs you need everybody."

"Playing a team like that with some of your key guys out, that's not a good combination," John Lackey said.

Guerrero will get flailed again for getting two total bases in three playoff games, but look around. Hitting is tough in the playoffs even with peanut-sized strike zones and adequate protection _ i.e., Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee, Alfonso Soriano.

Schilling wasn't fooled. To get to Willits, he blatantly pitched around Guerrero, a four-pitch walk with Angels on first and third.

The Angels had five extra-base hits, all doubles, in 27 innings and scored in only two of them.

And they were outhomered, 5-0. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez had four of those, including back-to-back off Weaver on Sunday.

Overall, they came up 28 times in the series and reached base, or touched all of them, 18 times.

"They fight off the pitches and they don't chase anything," pitching coach Mike Butcher said. "What you want to do is get ahead and then go down and away. Frankie (Rodriguez) fell behind Manny 1-0 the other night (before the winning missile in Game 2)."

Weaver brought huzzahs in the first when he fell behind Ortiz 2-0, got a strike, threw a slow curve for another strike and then froze him with a 94 mph fastball on the outside corner.

Next time, Ortiz took a strike and Weaver tried to throw something down and off the plate. It caught too much white. At least Ortiz didn't watch this home run, letting right-fielder Guerrero do it instead.

"Down and in is not a good place to pitch to a left-hander like that," Butcher said.

Ramirez fell behind 0-2, got it to 3-2 _ and the Red Sox did that all week _ and hit a truly remarkable bomb that bounced above the edge of the rockpile and climbed nearly to the top of the canopy. And he denoted it with both hands outstretched, like Esa-Pekka Salonen at the end of a crescendo.

"The inning before, we had second and third and didn't score," said Terry Francona, the Boston manager. "Come back, nobody on, and all of a sudden we got those two runs back."

Ramirez was available after the `05 season, sort of. The Angels were intrigued, but Boston wanted kids. On Sunday Ervin Santana was in the bullpen and Brandon Wood, the bright light two years ago who now needs to shorten his swing, was home.

But Ortiz, after the Angels eliminated the Twins in 2002, was out there, too. Ortiz had hit 20 home runs for Minnesota and had five hits in five games against Anaheim. The Twins non-tendered him, and Boston GM Theo Epstein, on the urging of scout Jerry Stephenson, signed Ortiz to a one-year, $1.25 million deal. Bill Stoneman and 28 other GMs could have.

That was 208 regular-season homers ago.

Even this year, when he endured multiple hurts, Ortiz led the AL in on-base percentage, and his OPS of 1.066 was .001 behind Alex Rodriguez's.

"They're good, I don't know how many more times I can say it," Lackey said wearily.

Geography had nothing to do with this. The Angels didn't have home field, but then they've lost four consecutive playoff games here. In those games they have scored eight runs with one home run, seven extra base hits, a .185 average and six walks. So much for that.

No, this wasn't as much elimination as euthanasia. The past three years the Angels have reached the postseason, either they, or the team that ousted them, won the World Series. Since Boston isn't scheduled to play Stanford, this trend should hold.

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(c) 2007, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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