MLB Betting Tips Angels Face cold hard facts

Posted by Rohith on October 17, 2009 at 11:18 am

They can blame it on a night better suited for ice fishing than playing baseball. It’s never a good sign when your shortstop is wearing a ski mask.

They can blame it on Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia(notes), the biggest man in most any company he chooses, and whose stature is growing exponentially now that he struts upon a stage grand enough to accommodate him.

But most of all, the Los Angeles Angels can blame only themselves, on a cold night that defied earlier forecasts and stayed dry, but instead rained all manner of Angel misadventures in a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Friday in Game 1 of the ALCS.

The Yankees profited from the pratfalls of a team with a hard-earned reputation of minimizing mistakes, which also was the formula New York used in the first round against the Minnesota Twins, another team presumably sound of mind and body that kept walking face-first into walls.

“We haven’t seen our guys crack the door open for a team like we did tonight in a long time,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said after a game in which the Angels made three errors and shortstop Erick Aybar(notes) and third baseman Chone Figgins(notes) permitted a first-inning infield popup to fall untouched between them, allowing a run to score.

Angels starter John Lackey(notes), who already had watched left fielder Juan Rivera’s(notes) misguided throw allow Johnny Damon(notes) to take an extra base on his opposite-field single, thought he was headed back to the dugout having allowed just one run when Hideki Matsui(notes) lifted a routine fly to the left side. Figgins camped under it. So did Aybar, standing just a few feet away. Aybar took his eyes off the ball and glanced at Figgins, who by then had assumed the shortstop was going to take it. The ball practically landed at Aybar’s feet.

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