Royals make things extra tough for Angels
Angels couldn’t stand the heat in this pressure cooker of a situation
The latenight cardiac kids were back at it Friday night at Angel Stadium, and we certainly aren’t talking about the Angels.
The Kansas City Royals did it again. This time, it was a two- run homer by first baseman Eric Hosmer. It came in the 11th inning for a team that apparently doesn’t know about proper bedtimes.
Hosmer’s homer made the score 3- 1— the final was 4- 1— and effectively poked a huge hole in the Angels’ balloon. This is a best- offive American League division series, and it made it 2- 0, Royals, with the next two games in Kansas City.
The Royals had won their way into this position with an extra- inning victory in the AL wild- card game, coming back from four runs down against Oakland, and then winning in extra innings against the Angels on Thursday.
No, it’s not over for the
Angels, but the guy in charge of the bell in the church tower is about to ring the death knell. The vultures are circling.
There clearly is a team of destiny in this series, and it is not the star- studded Angels, who posted the best record in baseball in the regular season and were expected to be in the mix all theway to the World Series.
In fact, the talk and hype around here has been about what a great possibility there was this year for a Southern California FreewayWorld Series. Now, with the Dodgers also getting beat Friday and with no less than Clayton Kershaw getting banged around, you can almost hear Jim Mora Sr. poised tomake his declaration.
“Freeway Series? Freeway Series? Are you kidding?”
The Angels hadn’t been able to hit theirway out of a paper bag but appeared to get a boost fromHall-of- Famer- to- be Albert Pujols, who came through in the clutch to tie the score at1- 1 in the sixth inning.
The Angels, whose bats are the only thing in Southern California at the momentt hat isn’t hot, had frittered away chance after chance both Thursday night and the early part of the game Friday.
But when Pujols came to bat with Mike Trout on first and Kole Calhoun on second, he did not do what most of the other Angels had been doing recently in the clutch— fail. He singled through the right side of the infield and Calhoun scored.
It had been so long since that kind of inning had been put together— both Angels’ runs in their 3- 2 loss Thursday night were on solo home runs— that therewas sudden joy for the Los Angeles Angels of Mudville. But thatwas short- lived. In the eighth, C. J. Cron led off with a double, Collin Cowgill was sent in as a pinch runner and Chris Iannetta came to the plate. Abig inning was in the air.
Then Iannetta hit a medium depth fly ball to left center field and Jarrod Dyson, inserted that inning as a defensive replacement, wandered over tomake the catch.
But, holy moly, Cowgill tagged up and took off for third, where hewas easily gunned downby Dyson.
The air came out of the Angels’ balloon, the Angels fans and all the compressors in the concession stands. There is aggressive baserunning and there is running oneself out of a game. And perhaps, in this case, a season.
In the11th, Hosmer smacked his two- run homer off Kevin Jepsen and all the Angels had left to fall back onwas the theory that they certainly have won three in a row many times this season and they can do it again.
The power of positive thinking is a good thing. Abetter thing is starting to actually hit the ball.
In the end, thiswas more like a stress test for the fans than a baseball game. Atotal of 45,361 came to the Big A to watch Friday night. Was this a baseball game or were they being locked in a small room, with bright lights turned on them and a fat, smelly guy with bad breath demanding answers? Pick the latter.
One must always search for good news. For the Angels, that is that one of their stars, Josh Hamilton, won’t have to face the boos fromhis own fans for at least another five days. Heis in the second year of a five year contractworth $ 125 million and his production this year— and last— has not beenworth that price.
Angels fans are among the most player friendly, patient people in sports. But not anymore with Hamilton.
Andthen, therewas the final straw. Superstar MikeTrout, who has yet to get a hit in the playoffs, but is still correctly getting a pass fromthe fans and maystill be the league’sMVP, ended the gameby striking out in the bottomof the11th.
For Angels fans, itwas another ugly, frustrating night in a postseason that had promised somuch.