Morning Mix 12/1/09

First one of December.

• Quick Canal (w/ Leatitia Sadier of Stereolab) - Atlas Sound
• All of the Things That Go To Make Heaven and Earth - New Pornographers
• The One Who Got Us Out - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• Futures and Folly - Blitzen Trapper
• Cracking Up - the Jesus and Mary Chain
• High and Dry - Radiohead
• Let the Serpent Sleep - Elf Power
• Run - Spiritualized
• In the Flowers - Animal Collective

The last song serves as a good reminder that year end lists are coming up. Animal Collective will likely be featured prominently. Here's Run, from Spiritualized. Originally released as the first song of the second movement of Laser Guided Melodies, it has also been released as a single in its own right.

Morning Mix 11/30/09

Post-Thanksgiving and ready for three weeks of work before I go home for Christmas:

• Fall On Me - R.E.M.
• Lovecats - the Cure
• On and On - the Longpigs
• Four Sticks - Led Zeppelin
• Sons of Cain - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• So Much - the Sundays
• The Piccolo Snare - Super Furry Animals
• Big Red - Frank Black
• You're Not Very Well - Charlatans U.K.
• Squint - Grant Lee Phillips

Maybe the largest concentration of "acts I've seen live" today. All but Zeppelin, if you give me credit for Frank Black, who I've seen with the Pixies. And not one song released this year. Which reminds me, year end lists start soon. Here are the Longpigs and Frank Black.

Cheatey Petey Shows His True Colors

Is there a bigger cocksucker in sports than Pete Carroll? Fresh off bitching about Stanford trying to hang 50 on him, he runs up the score with a meaningless touchdown in the final minute against UCLA.

If I were Rick Neuheisel, I would have called an out pattern on that last drive, and instructed my receiver to forget the ball and bury a U$C coach, preferable the cocksucker Carroll himself.

Morning Mix - 11/23/09

Ran into some disaster this morning, but here's what came up first:

• Motor Away - Guided By Voices
• Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine
• Nice Dream - Radiohead
• Mason City - Fiery Furnaces
• Sonny - Paloalto

Then I ran out of juice. Apparently it had been a while since I powered up the old iPod, and now, roughly 700 songs into a 1,400 song playlist (give or take), I have to start all over. Ugh.

Today you get two videos. First the is the short and sweet GBV video for both Auditorium and Motor Away. Next up is the long, meandering, sort of all over the place Mason City, by the Fiery Furnaces, which features one of my all-time favorite guitar solos right around the two minute mark.

Morning Mix 11/20/09

After three straight days of driving 50 miles in traffic back and forth to the suburbs for training (teaching this week after attending last week), I was finally back on the train this morning. You SoCalers who drive every day don't realize how nice it is to live close to reliable and clean public transportation.

• In the Flowers - Animal Collective
• The King of Carrot Flowers - Neutral Milk Hotel
• Blue Spark - X
• Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before - the Smiths
• Not Even Jail - Interpol
• Pandora's Box - Throwing Muses
• Seems So - the Apples in Stereo
• Can You Feel It - the Apples in Stereo

I think that's the first time since I've started this that I've had two songs from the same band back to back. First time Animal Collective has popped up as well, the first track from what will probably be my album of the year, in a close race with Dirty Projectors.

Morning Mix 11/16/09

Back from training and back on the train. Here's today's lineup:

• Human Being - the Beta Band
• Ballad of the Lonely Argonaut - Beulah
• Bye Bye Badman - the Stone Roses
• Ex-Girl Collection - the Wrens
• Things Are Getting Better - the High Dials
  
• Lay - the Peels
• Tin Pan Alley - the Apples in Stereo
• 9-9 - R.E.M.
• Alone Again Or - Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs
  

A bunch of tracks that are arguably the best on their respective albums. Still not sure how the Peels never made it, with Robyn Miller's voice and good looks. I've seen six of these acts in concert, and I skipped the one chance I had to see Matthew Sweet.

Here's the High Dials. This is the only good version of this song that I can find on Youtube, but it really doesn't do justice to the live version, which is an incredible 10 minute jam.

Morning Mix 11/9/09

Happy Berlin Wall day. My brother was actually there in Berlin when it all happened, just by chance. He was studying in Heidelberg and had made a weekend trip to Berlin and ended up in the middle of everything. I still have a piece of the wall in my apartment.

On a programming side, this bit will go on hiatus for about a week since I have to go to a worthless training that I'm pretty pissed off about.

• I'll See You in the Evening - Mazarin
• Bellyache - Echobelly
• Just Like Heaven - the Cure
• Everyone Chooses Sides - the Wrens
  
• The Everlasting Scream - Elf Power
• T.V. Mystic - the High Dials
• The Connection - Travis
• The Caterpillar - the Cure
• The Fishhook Girl - Echo and the Bunnymen
  

The last one is a B-Side. I probably only have about five or six Cure songs on this playlist, so it's a bit surprising to see two come up in one morning. Of the eight bands, I've seen all but Echobelly and Elf Power in concert.

Morning Mix 11/6/09

Let's get to it:

• Break Me Gently - Doves
• The Tourist - Radiohead
• Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin
• Show Me Mary - Catherine Wheel
• Bad - U2
• Seen the Light - Supergrass
• Ontario - the Posies
• Modern Love (David Bowie Cover) - the Last Town Chorus

Lots of British stuff today until the Posies came in and broke the streak. Every time I hear Show Me Mary, I can never tell at the beginning whether it's that song or Wembley, by the Candy Skins. I'd post the vids, but Universal doesn't want me embedding videos, so here's the lovely Megan Hickey instead.

Morning Mix 11/5/09

Today's random commuter music:

• What the World is Waiting For - the Stone Roses
• Testimony - Grant Lee Buffalo
• Waking Up Tired - the Hoodoo Gurus
• In Between Days - the Cure
• Going Down - the Stone Roses
• Generals and Majors - XTC
• Jean - Billy Bragg (cover of the Smiths B-Side)
• Fight - Art Brut
• the Commuter - Simple Kid
• Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend
• St. Expedite - Grant Lee Phillips

This was like two sides of a mix tape, with the classic stuff on the first side and the contemporary stuff on side 2. Five of the first seven songs were released in the '80s, and the other two were mid-'90s. Also notable, three of these were released as b-sides (the other two from the Stone Roses). Finally, Art Brut followed Billy Bragg, and the song 'Fight' repeats the variations on the lyric "Some things are really best left unspoken but I prefer it all to be out in the open", which is lifted directly from Billy Bragg's hit 'Sexuality'. Funny coincidence.

I'm going to throw a change up today and post the Smiths' version of Jean.

Morning Mix 11/4/09

Here's today's commuting music:

• Tornado Alley - Viva Voce
• Streethawk I - Destroyer
• M79 - Vampire Weekend
• Big Sur - The Thrills
  
• M62 Song - Doves
• Low - Cracker
• Empty - Metric
• Ain't That Enough - Teenage Fanclub
• The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian

Two things stand out today. After yesterday's sausage fest, we had some ladies today, with Anita Robinson taking vocals on Tornado Alley, and Emily Haines on Empty. Also, pretty poppy, with the exception of maybe Cracker. Also a bit odd to have both M79 and M62 Song in the same morning.

Morning Mix 11/3/09

See yesterday's post for details. Here's today's stuff:

• Good Weekend - Art Brut
• 303 - Kula Shaker
• Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip - the Whigs
  
• Timorous Me - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
  
• Evil - Interpol
• Going to Hell - Brian Jonestown Massacre
• Mary Anne - Spacemen 3
• The Holy Ground - the High Dials
• The Ballad of Elton John - Simple Kid
• A Good Man is Easy to Kill - Beulah
• Jeepster - T. Rex
  

Pretty decent showing today. Good stuff to listen to on the train. I've seen eight of these bands live (8.5 if you give half credit for Spiritualized in place of Spacemen 3). Three of them this year. Here's some TL/Rx, who I just saw at the brand spankin' new Lincoln Hall about a week and a half ago. He played this song.

Morning Mix 11/2/09

In order to keep from totally ignoring this blog, I've decided that I'm starting a new series which will no doubt bore the crap out of everyone who stumbles by, but oh well. A little background: I have roughly 7,600 songs on my iPod, 99% of which are from albums I've either purchased and ripped to my computer, or albums I've downloaded through things like emusic (I think I only have 20 songs I've ever purchased from iTunes because of a gift card I received, and they're all almost all David Bowie). The rest are either one offs that I've downloaded from band's websites or places like Stereogum.

From that universe, I created a playlist of only the songs I really like to listen to, and ended up with about 2,500 songs. I listen to music on the train on the way to work, and with that playlist, I found myself skipping songs a lot if I wasn't in the right mood for what popped up. So I cut that list further, and reduced it to it's current 1,300+ songs.

A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to listen to that whole playlist straight through on shuffle. No skipping. I do this on the way to and from work, and while working out. What will appear here will be whatever popped up on a given morning. Granted, I'm about 400 songs or so into the process, but so be it.

Here's the mix for this morning, in order:

• Something's Burning - the Stone Roses
• Creep (the F-word version) - Radiohead
• Drop It Doe Eyes - Los Campesinos!
• Electricityscape - the Strokes
• Elephant Stone - the Stone Roses
• Gun in the Sun - Wavves
• Company I Keep - White Rabbits
• Receptacle for the Respectable - Super Furry Animals
• Three Women - Stereolab
• When Jokers Attack - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Litmus test

If in the biggest inning of the biggest game of your season, you allow two runs without the other team getting one hit, you don't deserve to even be in the post-season, let alone the World Series.

Angels Still Breathing: Angels 5; Yankees 4

With the season on the line, the Angels needed to find a way to get back into this series. Thanks to the bats of Vladimir Guerrero, Howie Kendrick, and Jeff Mathis, the Angels pulled the series back to 2-1 and look to get even tomorrow night.

Jered Weaver didn't bring his best stuff to the mound today. He got his pitch count up early, and his fastball was very hittable. He battled through five innings, allowing five hits and three walks while striking out four. He was undone by three solo homers, the first coming from Derek Jeter on the third pitch of the game. To Weaver's credit, he worked out of some serious jams. In the second and fourth innings, he found himself with two runners on and no one out, and was able to work out of it both times. He left after a fifth inning in which he allowed the third solo homer of his day, a fastball that was hit over the short wall in right field by Johnny Damon.

In the bottom of the fifth, Howie Kendrick started the comeback with a solo shot of his own off of Yankees starter Andy Pettite. Kendrick crushed an inside fastball into bullpen in left field. An inning later, Bobby Abreu worked a one out walk. With two outs, Vladimir Guerrero hit a towering shot over the wall in left field to tie the score at three.

The Angels took the lead an inning later. Yankees manager Joe Girardi brought in Joba Chamberlain to face the right handed Kendrick, and Howie greeted him with a triple off the wall in right field. Maicer Izturis hit for Mike Napoli and drove Kendrick home with a sacrifice fly. But the lead was short lived. Kevin Jepsen walked Hideki Matsui to lead off the eighth inning. Matsui was replaced by Brett Gardner, but he was erased on a caught stealing, the result of a pitch out and a great throw and tag by Jeff Mathis and Erick Aybar. It was in important play, because Jorge Posada followed it up with a solo home run to dead center field, tying the game.

The Angels missed a golden opportunity to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Bobby Abreu led the inning off with a double to wall in right center field. Abreu thought about stretching it to third, and by the team he decided to stay at second, it was too late. He had overrun the bag and was thrown out on a nice play by Derek Jeter, and a great cover of second base by Mark Teixeira.

The Angels threatened again in the 10th inning. Mathis led off with a double and was bunted to third by Aybar. All runners were safe when Mariano Rivera's throw to third went into left field, but an alert Johnny Damon backed the play up and held Mathis. Chone Figgins grounded to first, leaving Mathis on third. After Abreu was walked intentionally, Torii Hunter hit a sharp grounder to Teixeira, who threw to the plate for the second out. Guerrero grounded out to first to end the inning.

Ervin Santana got the Angels through the top of the 11th with top notch stuff, setting the Angels up for fireworks in the bottom of the inning. After David Robertson retired Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales, Joe Girardi made the strangest of his many strange managerial decisions and pulled Robertson in favor of Alfredo Aceves. Kendrick delivered yet again, this time with a two out single to center field. Jeff Mathis followed with a walk off RBI double on a pitch that he crushed to left center field, bringing Kendrick around from first base.

Thoughts on the game:

• He screwed up on the bases, but a nice take away from this game are the two hits from Bobby Abreu. The Angels NEED his bat to come through, and hopefully today's game was a step in the right direction. On the other hand, Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales have been non-existent. Both were 0-5 today.
• Hopefully Howie Kendrick made his case to stay in the lineup today. I know he'll be in there tomorrow against the left-hander, but there's no reason his bat should be on the bench, even against right handers. With all credit in the world to Jeff Mathis, he was the Angels most valuable player today. His solo homer in the fifth got the offense started. His triple gave the Angels their first lead, and his single in the 11th set up the drama in the bottom of the 11th. His addition to the lineup was huge.
  
• Joe Girardi really overmanaged the Yankees today. Pulling Robertson for Aceves was the killer move, but Damaso Marte and Phil Coke, both left handers, faced two hitters and threw a combined four pitches in back to back at bats. He used Mariano Rivera for an inning, but made a defensive move to replace Johnny Damon's arm in left field with Jerry Hairston. This cost the Yankees their DH, and Girardi made the call to hit for Rivera with a weak bat and two out in the top of the 11th, which meant he had to pull Rivera from the game. The rest is history.
• Mark Teixeira, love him or hate him, is just a terrific fielder. He made the crucial play to cover second base on Abreu's botched double. He retired all three batters in the 10th when the Angels loaded the bases, keeping the Angels from scoring in an inning where they had a runner on third and nobody out.
• For all of its faults, the Angels bullpen worked six innings and allowed only one run, the Posada homer. Darren Oliver worked another solid 1.2 innings. Fuentes worked the ninth, striking out two and allowing only an intentional walk to A-Rod, perhaps a game too late. Jason Bulger worked a 1-2-3 tenth and struck out two hitters.
  
• Can't wait for tomorrow night.
  

Yankees 4; Angels 3

Just an atrocious way to end a game that the Yankees tried to give away. I don't even know what to say after this one. Time and time again the Angels had chances to take control, and time and time again they refused to cash in. For some reason, the Angels have not come to the ALCS prepared to play, and it has cost them the first two games of the season. They wasted an excellent effort from Joe Saunders and Kevin Jepsen, and now they head back to Anaheim with a must win game on Monday afternoon.

The Yankees got the scoring started in the second inning. Nick Swisher worked a two out walk, and Robinson Cano tripled him home. Derek Jeter's third inning homer gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. The Angels got both runs back in the fifth inning. Maicer Izturis led the inning off with a ground rule double, and Erick Aybar singled him home. After Chone Figgins was hit by a pitch, and Torii Hunter walked, Yankees starter A.J. Burnett threw a wild pitch that scored Aybar to tie the game.

The bullpens battled it out into extra innings, with Joe Girardi burning through his best pitchers early, while the Angels went to the 10th with some of their best arms unused. In the 11th inning, Gary Matthews walked to lead off the inning. After Aybar bunted him to second, Chone Figgins singled him home to give the Angels a 3-2 lead. Mike Scioscia called upon closer Brian Fuentes to end the game, but he surrendered a lead off home run to Alex Rodriguez that tied the game. It came on an 0-2 pitch, but in Fuentes' defense, the ball barely cleared the wall in right field, and would have been a routine fly ball in every single professional ball park in the country. Only in the joke of a ball park they built in the Bronx would that be a home run. Yankee Stadium is really an embarrassment to baseball.

The Angels left the go ahead run in scoring position in both the 11th and 12th innings, failing to get the big hit time and time again. In the bottom of the 13th, Jerry Hairston, Jr. led the inning off with a base hit. He was sacrificed to second. The Angels intentionally walked Cano to get to Melky Cabrera. Cabrera hit a grounder to second that should have been the second out, but Izturis felt the need to try to get the out at second, even though there was no chance at turning a double play. Predictably, he threw it away, and Chone Figgins botched the back-up. Hairston scored, and now the Angels find themselves at death's door.

Thoughts on the game:

• I'm not sure I have many. I'm numb at this point. Aside from Joe Saunders, who got himself out of jam after jam, not one player on the Angels played like they wanted to win this game. A team that relied on getting the job done in crucial situations has not gotten it done in those situations against the Yankees.
• Yankee Stadium is a joke. Blame Fuentes all you want for making a bad pitch to A-Rod, and he certainly made a bad pitch, but there isn't a professional baseball stadium in the country were that's a home run. I've played on softball fields where that wouldn't have gone out. The new Yankee Stadium is an embarrassment to baseball. If they wanted to play on a Little League field, they should have moved the team to Williamsport.
• We won't know if the series is over until Tuesday evening. The Angels have to win games three and four. Even if they lose game five they aren't dead, but they have to even the series up at some point What scares me isn't the idea that Jered Weaver won't get it done. I have the utmost confidence in him. But this marks the sixth straight ALCS loss for the Angels, and the biggest problem in all of those games has been the offense. I think they can handle Andy Pettite. He's not all that. But they've got to get it done Monday, or the series is over.
• There were all kinds of other weird things in this game that may or may not be worth mentioning. A strange call at second base on a routine double play ball where Erick Aybar didn't touch the base and didn't get the neighborhood call. Robinson Cano's multiple erros. None of those had an impact on the game, so I'm not going to delve into them.
  

Game 1 Debacle

Not much to say. The Angels just looked like they weren't ready for the series to start. It's almost like they were expecting a rain out, and were surprised when the game went off as planned.

• The misplay in the first inning will be considered a tone-setter, but it was almost more of a "tone-identifier". Lackey's inability to retire Derek Jeter in the bottom of the first, and the bloop broken bat double by Johnny Damon were signs that things probably weren't going to go the Angels' way tonight.
• Give all credit to CC Sabathia. It was clear from the first strike out of Bobby Abreu tonight that he had his good stuff, and it was going to be a struggle. At the very least, it was going to be a game in which the Angels could not afford to gift wrap runs for the Yankees like they did tonight.
• The Yankees' fourth run was the result of a bad pick off throw by John Lackey, but a better question is why he was even worried about the runner. There were two outs, and Cabrera can run, but he only had 10 stolen bases all year. I'm not sure why Lackey was so pre-occupied with him.
• The thought of Joe Saunders starting game two felt a lot better when I thought the Angels might win game one. Now they send a guy out to the mound who hasn't pitched in two weeks, and while he can dial it up to 94, he's essentially a feel pitcher. I'm not sure that's the best option for the Angels, but it will have to do. The question will be whether the offense can jump out and five him some early confidence.
• Part of that offense is going to need to come from the top of the order. Chone Figgins is just killing the Angels in the lead off spot. He HAS to get on base.
  
• A-Rod is a pussy.
• I think Teixeira probably pulled his foot on the bunt by Hunter, but the Angels got those calls against the Red Sox, so it's hard to complain. I don't think it would have made much of a difference anyway.
• The nice thing about not having home field is that you console yourself after two losses with the thought that you were supposed to lose those games on the road. That said, game two now become huge. The Angels have to at least put up a worthy effort.
• The Angels have now lost five straight ALCS games, after winning four straight in 2002. On the plus side, they lost game one in the 2002 ALDS to the Yankees, and in the 2005 ALDS, also against the Yankees. They won both series.
  

I Probably Just Jinxed Them

But I'll be in Anaheim if the Angels beat the Yankees, and if the World Series goes at least six games. Just got tickets for games six and seven.

Thoughts on Game 3 and the Series

• I've said so many things and made so many casual predictions that I shouldn't get any credit for this. But something told me this was the year that everyone would basically give up and say that the Angels had no chance. With the pressure off, they'd win the series. Still, I probably wouldn't have put any money on it. And once the pundits started picking the Angels half the time, I became convinced that we'd see more of the same.
• Going into the series, the consensus was the teams were fairly even, but the Sox had huge advantage in the bullpen. If they could make the series a battle of the bullpens, the Sox would win easily. In three games, the Angels bullpen allowed one run in six and a third innings. The Sox bullpen allowed seven runs in seven and a third innings, including five runs today. This probably speaks more the nature of the playoffs and small sample sizes than anything, but if you told me that the Angels pen would only give up one run over the first three games, I'd have a pretty good feeling about the series.
• Angels starters deserve some credit for those good bullpen numbers. Both Lackey and Weaver worked into the eighth inning, and Kazmir lasted six today, even though he was a bit shakey. They really limited the potential for danger.
• I can only say this from the perspective of an Angels fan, and fans of one of the 29 other teams will likely disagree, but I thought having Dave Henderson throw out the first pitch was low class. The wounds from that game aren't fully healed, and they run deeper than simply a lost baseball game. Hell, the Sox didn't even win the World Series that year. Maybe the Angels should have called up Ray Knight, Mookie Wilson, and the guy who sold coke to Len Bias to throw out the first pitch of a potential game five.
  
• Bobby Abreu was amazing. He was on base nearly 70% of the time. He delivered big at bat after big at bat. He's arguably the best $5MM the Angels have ever spent.
  
• On the other hand, Chone Figgins has been useless at the plate, or at least he was until his clutch walk in the ninth inning. But this is nothing new. Coming into today's game, he was hitting under .200 with an OBP barely above that. Not exactly what you expect or require from a table setter.
  
• The ALCS doesn't start until Friday. I'm probably most concerned about Joe Saunders. There will be some question about the rotation for the next series, but John Lackey has to start the first game. You can't mess with the rotation just to get someone work. The only question worth asking is this: Who gives the Angels the best chance to win game one? The answer is John Lackey.
  
• So it's on to New York, and again, I'm not going to make a prediction. But I'll say that the same hunch that made me think this might be the year that the Angels ended their Red Sox hex is also telling me that it's probably the season in which the Yankees end their Angels hex. Hope I'm wrong.
  

The Battles:

• I think the starting pitching is a wash;
• The Yankees have a better bullpen;
• The Angels are better defensively;
• The Angels have a better bench;
• The Yankees have a better lineup.

The teams are fairly evenly matched. In fact, the teams have been virtually in a dead heat since July 1st. It's anyone's guess. Let's play ball.

Going Back to Boston - Up Two Games to None

After two games, the Angels have erased the letters H and E from the word HEX. Two starts, two great pitching performances, and two days with just enough offense to get the Angels over the hump. They’ll board a plane tomorrow and fly back to Boston with a 2-0 series lead in the best of five ALDS.

Jered Weaver backed up John Lackey’s gem from last night with one of his own, limiting the Red Sox to two hits and two walks over 7.1 innings, while striking out seven. Darren Oliver, Kevin Jepsen, and Brian Fuentes took the reins and finished off the victory, ensuring a comfortable Saturday for nervous Angels fans everywhere.

The Sox got the scoring started in the fourth inning when Jacoby Ellsbury led the inning off with a triple. Two batters later, Victor Martinez singled him home, and the Sox had a 1-0 lead.

The Angels didn’t wait long to respond. Bobby Abreu led off the bottom of the fourth with a base hit. After Mike Lowell made a great play on a Torii Hunter line drive, Vladimir Guerrero singled Abreu to third. Kendry Morales cashed him in with a sacrifice fly to right field, and the Angels tied the game at 1.

Weaver and Beckett matched zeroes in the fifth and sixth innings, but the Angels jumped in front in the bottom of the seventh. Guerrero walked to lead off the inning, and pinch runner Howie Kendrick stole second. Two outs later, clutch God Maicer Izturis singled him home. Josh Beckett hit Mike Napoli with a curve ball two put runners on first and second. Erick Aybar followed with the big blast to center field, a triple over the head of Ellsbury that gave the Angels a 4-1 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

Thoughts on Game 2:

• Through two games last year, the Angels’ 6-9 plus leadoff hitters were a combined 4-42, with three walks, and six total bases. This season they’re 7-34 with 11 total bases. The difference has almost totally been Erick Aybar, who has a double and a triple so far, and whose triple tonight was the difference in the game.
• I still think these teams are almost dead even. If you started this series fresh tomorrow, I could easily see the roles completely reversed. But for now, the Angels are outplaying the Red Sox, and the biggest key has been their clutch hitting. That’s been the Angels’ M.O. in the regular season this decade, but severely lacking come playoff time. This year seems different.
• The Angels take two left handers into Boston, seemingly a graveyard for lefties. But both Scott Kazmir and Joe Saunders have been excellent against the Red Sox in their careers. The matchups favors the Angels from this point, but things change again if we go to a fifth game.
• The best the Angels could hope for, going into this series, are deep runs from their starters, and low leverage situations for their relievers. They’ve got that so far. If they can get that again on Sunday, they’ll be preparing for the ALCS.

Thoughts on Game One

• You really can't overstate how important it was to get game one. If the Angels had lost again, after getting another excellent start, you have to think it would have started some sort of death spiral. But they didn't win in a throw-away type laugher. They didn't win on a controversial finish. They simply outperformed Boston at the plate and in the field, and were the better team. They haven't won anything yet, but this is a good start.
  
• I'm really glad that neither of the awful C.B. Bucknor calls had an impact on the game beyond John Lester's pitch count. They'll be footnotes now, but today would have been lousy with whiny Red Sox fans complaining that the fix was in.
  
• That said, there were two bad calls that had an effect on the game. Lackey through ball four to Kevin Youkilis and got a lucky strike call from Joe West to keep the at bat alive, and got an inning ending ground out two pitches later. He handled David Ortiz pretty well, so it may not have mattered, but he was really struggling with his control right there, and who knows what happens if he walks three straight.
  
• The second bad call, at least from the replays I've seen, was on the bases loaded double play. Looked to me like Torii Hunter avoided the tag at third, and that cost the Angels at least one run.
• It may be the last time Lackey pitches for the Angels, but two things about that possibility jumped out at me. First, if it is his last start in Anaheim, he just made about a million more per year with that start. Second, with the run support and defense that he got, he may be a tad more inclined to stay in SoCal. At the very least, he won't have a bad taste in his mouth from another excellent performance that went for naught.
• Chone Figgins was the only Angel who failed to reach base. The only other Angel without a hit was Bobby Abreu, but he also had no official at bats. Contrast that to last year where, for a few games, the entire bottom of the order was a black hole. This was a team effort. The defense was excellent, Kendry Morales provided a huge two out hit, and Torii Hunter, was very vocal on the need for the big performers to step up, provided the offensive heroism. That's a nice way to get things started.
• Another good pitching matchup tonight. So many things can happen in a short series that even a 2-0 lead won't give me much satisfaction, but I think the Angels exorcised a couple demons last night, and I think they'll all be a bit more relaxed tonight.
  

On a final note, I missed the last two innings of the game (in real time) because I had tickets to see a really great band called The Subjects. I only mention this because I missed the first and second games of the ALDS in 2002 for the same reason (only then it was Gomez and the Super Furry Animals). I think we all know how that turned out. So I'm doing my part.