ALCS: Angels Throw One Away Against Yanks
The Yankees ended a tense, five-hour, 10-minute marathon by capitalizing on an errant throw to score the winning run in a 4-3 win over the L.A. Angels in 13 innings, taking a 2-0 edge in the American League Championship Series.
Jerry Hairston Jr. started the rally with a leadoff single off Ervin Santana, the Angels' fifth pitcher. After a sacrifice and an intentional walk, the winning run scored when Melky Cabrera grounded to second.
Maicer Izturis' throw zipped by second base, the ball careening out of control like a wet bar of soap, and headed toward somewhere near third. Chone Figgins fumbled it as the winning run scored.
Maicer Izturis tried to get a forceout at second base but threw the ball into left field, allowing Hairston to score.
Typical for the Los Angeles Angels in this AL championship series. Something was fundamentally wrong on this trip to New York for this fundamentally sound team.
"I think if I let my hair grow out," center fielder Torii Hunter said, "I think I would have grays everywhere."
Los Angeles leadoff man Chone Figgins, who had been 0 for 18 in this postseason, gave the Angels a 3-2 lead with an RBI single in the top of the 11th. But Alex Rodriguez got the run right back with a homer off Brian Fuentes leading off the bottom of the 11th. That was A-Rod's third home run of the postseason.
Rodriguez had a chance to win it in the bottom of the 12th. But he flied out with the bases loaded for the third out.
Rain started falling in the ninth inning and kept gaining in intensity. By the 11th, many fans had left their seats to take cover. But very few people left the tense thriller before the end.
The game ended at 1:07 a.m.
It was 47 degrees at game time, 2 degrees warmer than on Friday, but it was again blustery, with a 15 mph wind from the north-northeast and gusts up to 23 mph that made the ceremonial red-white-and-blue bunting flap.
(Left: New York Yankees' Jerry Hairston Jr. celebrates after scoring on a throwing error by Los Angeles Angels' Maicer Izturis during the 13th inning of Game 2.)
The Yankees appeared set to bring back Sabathia on three days' rest for Game 4 the following day, but manager Joe Girardi wouldn't commit.
"We'll talk about it," he said, "if we know we get through this game and what's going to happen to our rotation. We have an off day to prepare what we're going to do."
Robinson Cano's RBI triple in the second and Derek Jeter's solo homer in the third had given New York a 2-0 lead.
But Erick Aybar singled in a run in the fifth off a suddenly shaky A.J. Burnett, who sent home another run with his second wild pitch of the inning.
Burnett, following up on CC Sabathia's eight innings of four-hit ball, started 13 of his first 15 batters with strikes and allowed one hit through four innings, but started 10 of his last 12 with balls. He gave up three hits in 6 1-3 innings, walked two and hit two batters.
Angels starter Joe Saunders, who hadn't pitched since Oct. 4, gave up six hits in seven innings, struck out five and walked one.
Los Angeles loaded the bases in the seventh after Cano misplayed a grounder to second for an error, but Joba Chamberlain struck out Vladimir Guerrero to end the threat. After Jeter botched what should have been an inning-ending, double-play grounder in the eighth, Phil Hughes struck out Gary Matthews Jr. and Rivera came on and retired Aybar on a slow roller. Rivera pitched 2 1-3 innings of one-hit relief, his longest outing since May 2006.
Hideki Matsui singled for the Yankees off Kevin Jepsen in the ninth and Brett Gardner's hit-and-run single sent pinch-runner Freddy Guzman to third. After Gardner advanced on defensive indifference, Cano hit a nubber in front of the plate and was thrown out at first by catcher Jeff Mathis.
As rain started to get heavier, New York had another chance in the 10th. Melky Cabrera reached on a leadoff single against Darren Oliver and Jorge Posada hit what should have been a double-play grounder. Only Aybar straddled second, and the Angels got just one out. After an intentional walk to Jeter, Johnny Damon fouled out and Mark Teixeira grounded into a forceout.
Saunders retired his first five batters before walking Nick Swisher on five pitches. Cano then reached out for an 0-2 pitch and drove it to right-center to score Swisher.
Jeter, 7 for 15 against Saunders coming in, hit an opposite-field homer a few rows into the right-field seats with one out in the third. With 19 postseason homers, Jeter moved past former Yankees Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson into sole possession of third place, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers' Manny Ramirez (29) and former Yankees teammate Bernie Williams (22).
The Angels tied it in the fifth, with the top of the inning taking 23 minutes as Burnett threw 33 pitches.
Maicer Izturis doubled, just the second leadoff runner to reach for the Angels in the series. Aybar singled him home with one out and stole Los Angeles' first base of the series, and Figgins became Burnett's second hit batter of the game. Bobby Abreu chased a high 3-1 fastball, fouled off three pitches and flied out to Damon in foul territory, just in front of the left-field wall.
Torii Hunter walked, with ball four bouncing into the stands. With Vladimir Guerrero at the plate, Burnett bounced a 1-2 pitch that scored Aybar with the tying run. Guerrero grounded out on the next offering.
At least now the slumping Angels get to head back West, where maybe a dramatic change in the weather can help them get back on track.
"I got this feeling, man," Hunter said confidently. "We go home, it's going to be a different scene. Definitely.
They can't play much worse.
National League Playoffs
After a travel day for the NLCS participants, the focus shifts from Los Angeles to Philadelphia for tonight's Game 3.
The Dodgers slipped past the Phillies 2-1 on Friday to gain a split of the opening two games in L.A.
The weather forecast for Philly isn't great: temperatures in the 40s with showers. It's Hiroki Kuroda for the Dodgers against Cliff Lee, who is sporting a 1.10 ERA in two postseason starts for the Phils.