John Lackey Talks after the game.

[Jon]

He made some decent points.  The Angels were absolutely the better regular season team this year.

I don't necessarily agree.   They won 5 more games than Boston, despite playing in a pitiful division.  How much better do you thinks the Sox would've fared if, instead of 18 vs. TB, NY and Tor, we got 18 vs. Oak, Sea and Texas?

It wouldn't be much different because the Angles faired well against the AL East and the AL West...both better records than the Sox had. The Angels would have won more games than the Sox, regardless of division placement. (Angles would have crushed the AL West teams [save for Oakland] if Boston were there, 9-4 against Boston).

And on top of playing in the best division in baseball, the Sox also dealt with a ton of injuries this year.  Lowell missed 49 games, Papi and Drew missed 53 each, Beckett, Daisuke, and Wakefield all spent stints on the DL.  And that's not even counting the Manny debacle in the middle of the season. 

Given those facts, I think there's absolutely no way you can argue that the Angels are the better team.  Now that the Sox are relatively healthy (though they are without Lowell and Beckett, the best postseason pitcher in baseball, are hurt), they beat the Angels in 4 games.  Seems to make sense to me. 

[ma11l]

He made some decent points.  The Angels were absolutely the better regular season team this year.

I don't necessarily agree.   They won 5 more games than Boston, despite playing in a pitiful division.  How much better do you thinks the Sox would've fared if, instead of 18 vs. TB, NY and Tor, we got 18 vs. Oak, Sea and Texas?

It wouldn't be much different because the Angles faired well against the AL East and the AL West...both better records than the Sox had. The Angels would have won more games than the Sox, regardless of division placement. (Angles would have crushed the AL West teams [save for Oakland] if Boston were there, 9-4 against Boston).

And on top of playing in the best division in baseball, the Sox also dealt with a ton of injuries this year.  Lowell missed 49 games, Papi and Drew missed 53 each, Beckett, Daisuke, and Wakefield all spent stints on the DL.  And that's not even counting the Manny debacle in the middle of the season. 

Given those facts, I think there's absolutely no way you can argue that the Angels are the better team.  Now that the Sox are relatively healthy (though they are without Lowell and Beckett, the best postseason pitcher in baseball, are hurt), they beat the Angels in 4 games.  Seems to make sense to me. 

I was thinking more along the lines of them beating us 8 out of 9 times during the regular season and not their division and their schedules.

[Triboy16]

THE ANGELS  (outside of Teixiera and Hunter) PLAYED SCARED

Totally agree with this statement. Their pitching was good from lackey to saunders and even weaver. It was their incapability to produce runs and defense that killed them.

Something also i couldn't understand was how they composed their batting lineup

1. Figgins
2. Hunter
3. Texeira
4. Vlad

I mean doesn't this order make more sense?? vlad can't run and he batting 3rd while hunter can run really well and was batting after him.

Angels will be a completely different team next year without vlad, k-rod and texeira. Vlad might take a pay cut to sign back with them(he is not an elite hitter anymore) but k-rod and texeira will demand big money the angels don't have.

[gpap]

"It's frustrating," Lackey said. "It's way different, this year from last year. They were better than us last year. They were not better than us this year. It's 100, 180 degrees different." "We lost to a team that's not better than us," "We are a better team than they are. The last two days, we shouldn't have given up anything."  "[Sunday] night they scored three runs on a pop fly that was called a hit, which was a joke," "[Monday] night they scored on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball that anywhere else in America is an out, and he's fist-pumping on second base like he did something great." Asked to describe his feelings, Lackey said, "Like I want to throw somebody through a wall." (From LA Times and MLB.com)

 

If the Angles are a better team than the Sox but were eliminated from the playoffs by the Sox, then what does that say about the Angles?

[Fan from VT]

He made some decent points.  The Angels were absolutely the better regular season team this year.  However that means squat.  Sure it was a close series that could've gone either way.  Each game was tight and could've been won by either team.  The bottom line is the Sox made all the plays defensively that the Angels couldn't which cost them big time.  The Sox also got a lot more big hits late in games from Drew, Bay, Lowrie, etc.  That's what makes them the better playoff team, which is why we have continually beat this team.


Definite low blow on Pedroia.  Should he not be excited for an RBI double after breaking out of an 0-fer series slump.  Who cares if it's an out anywhere else in America, it's not at Fenway.  We know that, and take advantage of it.  If he doesn't like it maybe he shouldn't thrown that awful fastball to Bay in LA that cost them the home field advantage.

i don't even agree with that. the angels barely had a better record against an easier schedule, and their point differential was significantly worse than the red sox. this means they won a lot of close games, which, contrary to what old-school brain washers tell you does NOT mean they are a clutch team, it means, essentially, they were lucky during the regular season and exposed during the playoffs.