Boston Red Sox

Behind enemy lines

By Chad Finn

2 minutes to read

Our daily look at what others are saying about the Red Sox-Angels matchup.

  • Thinly-veiled finger-pointing in the Angels clubhouse? Already? After one well-played loss? Geez, sounds like the pre-’03 Red Sox.

    But that certainly appears to be exactly what Los Angeles starter John Lackey was doing after he took the hard-luck loss in the Red Sox’ 4-1 victory last night (make that early this morning) in Game 1 of the ALDS.

    Wrote the LA Times’ Bill Shaikin, in the aftermath of the franchise’s 10th straight postseason loss to the Red Sox:

    Lackey is a team player and clubhouse leader, but he basically called out the offense after [the loss]

    He did not say he should have pitched better. He tipped his cap to Boston pitcher Jon Lester, but he wasn’t putting this loss all on himself, not after he gave up a two-run home run and nothing else.

    “We’ve got to find a way to score some runs,” Lackey said. “It’s pretty frustrating when one pitch [a two-run homer by Jason Bay] can lose the game for you.”

    And later:

    “The fact we’re talking about one pitch? Let’s be honest,” Lackey said.

  • Lackey obviously wasn’t the only frustrated Angel. Vlad Guerrero’s baserunning gaffe in the eighth inning, when he tried to go from first to third on Torii Hunter’s one-out bloop single to right with the Angels trailing, 2-1, also left some of his befuddled teammates wondering what might have been:

    “I was very surprised [he tried it],” Hunter said. “It was a bloop, and he didn’t know whether they would catch it. I didn’t think he would go first to third like that. Vladdy thought he could make it.”

    Hard to believe anyone was actually surprised, though. Guerrero has always run the bases like his cleats were on fire.

  • Orange County Register columnist Mark Whicker praises the Red Sox’ new players (Bay) and young guns (Jacoby Ellsbury) for continuing the franchise’s postseason dominance the Angels, and closes his piece with this kicker:

    [Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester are] too young to remember David Henderson and Donnie Moore.

    Old enough to know that the Big A also stands for “Again.”

  • The headline on this column by the Register’s Jeff Miller says it all: “Red Sox make this year’s healthy Angels look sick.”
  • Sounds like Angels owner Arte Moreno will at least try to meet slugger Mark Teixeira’s free-agent asking price in the offseason. Teixeira is a client of Scott Boras.
  • Elsewhere: While praising Bay’s performance, ESPN.com’s Jorge Arangure Jr. has a fun anecdote about the Sox marveling at Manny Ramirez’s homer earlier in the day . . . CNNSI’s Lee Jenkins calls the Angels “reckless” . . . FOXSports.com’s Mark Kriegel, on Guerrero’s mood in the Angels’ postgame clubhouse: “I’m not sure I ever saw a guy in a room full of people look so alone.”

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