Halos ghosts inside Stadium continue to haunt Yanks
ANAHEIM – If I never attend a game or have to see Angel Stadium out on the left coast, that would be perfectly fine with me.
I can’t take it anymore. Every time I see a game there, the worst takes place. It is only a matter of time before the inevitable shoe drops.
What is it about this team that makes the Yankees turn into a remake of the ’62 Mets? This is not some isolated occurrence. Once it happens for a certain amount of years, no longer can you coin the term “it’s just one of those things”.
The Los Angeles Angels have made life hell for the Yankees for most of this decade. Yes, they have been good over this stretch of years (they were World Series champions in 2002 – beating the Yankees to help get there), but whenever games are being played in the Pacific time zone and that ballpark, it is where it appears ghost really do exist.
I think back to Game 5 of the 2005 Division Series in Anaheim where on a drive to right centerfield, outfielders Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield collided with each other as the ball dropped to the ground. It was the second playoff elimination as the hands of them in four years. Along the way, many missed opportunities and very unusual bounces always seem to go the way of the Halos.
Something has to explain why the Angels are 17-5 against the Yankees in that building since 2005. In this span, only the weirdest of coincidences happen. It is where the inconceivable and unexpected is a regular event with no surprise. Seeing them on the schedule is to already mark a minimum of two losses for each three game series, and in other cases, just call it a sweep before it ever gets started.
If there were a way to forfeit the games, that probably would not be a bad idea either. It sure would beat the alternative of what we saw for three games out there this weekend.
In being swept out of Anaheim after last nights 5-4 disaster, the Yankees continue to prove that they are the best team in baseball when it comes to beating up on mediocre competition. However, put the Red Sox or Angels (in Anaheim) up in their face, and they melt like ice cream on a 100-degree day as their record against those teams reached an abominable 2-12 (a repulsive 0-11 if you only count the road games out West).
It is a miracle that they play them to a near even pace at home, but even then at times the Angels mysterious magic appears. It doesn’t matter whom they have in the lineup or what starting pitcher is on the mound. Take the numbers that each hitter currently has up until the point they are playing the Yankees and simply throw them in the garbage because it’s meaningless.
ANAHEIM – If I never attend a game or have to see Angel Stadium out on the left coast, that would be perfectly fine with me.
I can’t take it anymore. Every time I see a game there, the worst takes place. It is only a matter of time before the inevitable shoe drops.
What is it about this team that makes the Yankees turn into a remake of the ’62 Mets? This is not some isolated occurrence. Once it happens for a certain amount of years, no longer can you coin the term “it’s just one of those things”.
The Los Angeles Angels have made life hell for the Yankees for most of this decade. Yes, they have been good over this stretch of years (they were World Series champions in 2002 – beating the Yankees to help get there), but whenever games are being played in the Pacific time zone and that ballpark, it is where it appears ghost really do exist.
I think back to Game 5 of the 2005 Division Series in Anaheim where on a drive to right centerfield, outfielders Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield collided with each other as the ball dropped to the ground. It was the second playoff elimination as the hands of them in four years. Along the way, many missed opportunities and very unusual bounces always seem to go the way of the Halos.
Something has to explain why the Angels are 17-5 against the Yankees in that building since 2005. In this span, only the weirdest of coincidences happen. It is where the inconceivable and unexpected is a regular event with no surprise. Seeing them on the schedule is to already mark a minimum of two losses for each three game series, and in other cases, just call it a sweep before it ever gets started.
If there were a way to forfeit the games, that probably would not be a bad idea either. It sure would beat the alternative of what we saw for three games out there this weekend.
In being swept out of Anaheim after last nights 5-4 disaster, the Yankees continue to prove that they are the best team in baseball when it comes to beating up on mediocre competition. However, put the Red Sox or Angels (in Anaheim) up in their face, and they melt like ice cream on a 100-degree day as their record against those teams reached an abominable 2-12 (a repulsive 0-11 if you only count the road games out West).
It is a miracle that they play them to a near even pace at home, but even then at times the Angels mysterious magic appears. It doesn’t matter whom they have in the lineup or what starting pitcher is on the mound. Take the numbers that each hitter currently has up until the point they are playing the Yankees and simply throw them in the garbage because it’s meaningless.
Players that might have been struggling or down in the dumps find the Yankees to be a helpful elixir. It would be funny if it weren’t the sad truth and almost have a cartoon-ish attribute to all of this.
No player is the face of this entire oddball scenario than Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick.
On the surface, he appears to have all the tools necessary to be a successful big leaguer. For whatever reason, in his four years in the majors, he has never been able to put it all together.
Except when Kendrick is facing the Yankees.
He was sent down to the minors earlier this season because he couldn’t hit nor field, but was called back up to the big club just as the team wearing NEW YORK across the chest was coming to town for the weekend.
Over the past three years, Kendrick’s average of .468 (37 for 79) and OPS (1.168) against the Yankees dwarfs over every team he has faced with a minimum of 50 at bats.
Manager Mike Scoscia obviously knew these numbers and elected to put them to work this weekend. Kendrick was five for 13 back in May and proceeded to go (to no surprise) 4 for 7 with three RBI’s and looked like the second coming of Joe Morgan.
It’s not only him, but also Chone Figgins. You would think that having him face better pitching would fix this problem because for years the diminutive man would make continuous great plays, and get hit after hit after hit. Granted, the man is hitting .310 this season and has improved as a hitter over the years. But against the Yankees, he looks like Ted Williams.
Before this season, he was 13 for 35 (.371). By luck, he was held down this year to only six for 23 (.260). Yet, with Sabathia trying to hold the game at 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh, it was once again Figgins who would come up with a triple in the left centerfield gap and then, as it were scripted, scored on a bloop single to give the Angels the deciding run in their one run victory.
And these bloop hits…how does this keep happening?
Each game in that park features numerous falling singles that are perfectly placed to ridiculousness. Several of them fell in again on Friday night and have been falling in for years.
It did not matter that Torii Hunter and Viadimir Guerrero were on the disabled list. It never matters.
First, it was Kendry Morales looking like Babe Ruth drilling a three-run homer to center field to give the Angels the lead in the fifth inning. Later on, with Brian Bruney in the game trying to keep the deficit at 7-6, Erick Aybar cranked a three-run homer around the foul pole to make it a decisive 10-6 margin. On Saturday, one of their top prospects Brandon Wood, helped them rally from their second four run deficit of the series by hitting a two-run homer to right center as part of their seven run rally in the fifth inning, the second day in a row in which they had rallied from four runs down to take the lead.
Speaking of leads…why have one when you are playing there?
In the period where the Yankees have only won five of 22 games there, they have had the lead an incredible 17 times. They are not getting beaten to pulp as if this were the Varsity taking on the JV squad. What happens here is very much like when a basketball team makes a run at different points of a game.
When the Angels begin to string together hits that is when you sense they are making their surge. Unlike basketball, there are no timeouts you can call to slow the momentum. It continues like an avalanche. Every so often, it gets so out of control that it effectively ends the ballgame.
You can trace that all the back to the 2002 Division Series. In Game 3, the Yankees held a 6-1 lead in the middle innings and then the Angels made their run and nothing could be done to stop it. The Angels won that game and in Game 4 did the same thing again after trailing by several runs. You can sense it coming and there is nothing to stop it.
When the Yankees try to pull away or come back, they always run into the most unlikely of luck. Hard hit balls find the gloves of fielders. Think back to Game 2 of the Division Series in 2005 when the Yankees had a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and a chance to blow them out and take a 2-0 lead in the series. A hard hit ball handcuffs Figgins as he is on the ground flat on his back, and he has the presence of mind to be able to get up and throw the runner out to save one run, potentially two. What happens? The Angels score three runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead and eventually tie the series.
On Sunday, the Yankees had two more chances to take the lead. Trailing 4-2 in the seventh, they loaded the bases with no out and after Mark Teixeira struck out, Alex Rodriguez hit a hard hit ball that found Figgins’ glove (like always), stepped on third base and fired across for a double play to get out of the inning with nothing.
What did the Angels do in the bottom half of the inning? Score an insurance run on a bloop hit.
The very next inning, they loaded the bases again after scoring a run to make it 5-3. With Nick Swisher up, he would look to have tied the game with a hard base hit up the middle. Instead, the ball was caught by a combination of Oliver’s shin and the glove and they were able to turn a double play to get out of the inning.
Was I surprised? No.
After so many years, I’ve become accustomed and desensitized to the outcome.
What makes it worse is that there is a high probability that in order for the Yankees to advance to the American league Championship Series, it is the Angels and this stadium, their long decade nemesis, which they will have to get by in order get where they want to go.
As it stands, unless they win the AL East, they would be playing them again with the Angels having the extra home game. If that is going to be the case, then we may as well starting counting the days until next spring.
Unless the Yankees can somehow finally break through this hex.
Right now (and for the last half decade), Angel Stadium is the last place the Yankees want to be in a “must win” situation.
Spooky.
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