7 Things about Angels vs. White Sox
- Lots of pressure on the White Sox for Game 1: Angels are coming off the late night flight, a draining five game series, and the starters battered (Colon is out, Washburn back in for Game 2). White Sox are rested, have their hottest pitcher going, and playing at home. They MUST take Game 1, because they're not going to have this big of an advantage again. Paul Byrd has been hittable all year, altho very effective against righties, and the Sox should jump on him early before the Angels wake up from the champagne.
- Marte vs. McCarthy: Marte stinks. Truth. However, he's another lefty reliever who can get ready and quickly, whereas McCarthy is a starter who is unused to getting ready quickly. Add to it that he's a 22 yr old rookie who might have to come in the middle of a jam, and that might not be fair to McCarthy. The saving grace for Marte is that Al Leiter proved that a crappy lefty can still get Darin Erstad (.232, .614 OPS vs. lefties) and Steve Finley out. Strangely enough, Finley has better splits against LH pitchers than he does righties.
- Small balls and Big balls: People like to talk about Ozzie's smallball tendencies, but the White Sox still hit 200 HRs this year. The only guys who actually run and take an extra base on this team are Podsednik, Iguchi and Rowand. Aside from that, they can only bunt to move baserunners. The Angels play a truer version of small, with usually 7 of the 9 hitters being able to run and take extra bases on aggressive hit-and-run counts.
- Lineup roulette: The Angels have a much more hacktastic lineup, with Chone Figgins leading the team with 64 walks. Knowing their lack of on-base prowess, they early in counts to get the runners moving to take advantage of their team speed (6 guys with 10+ steals) and minimize the lineup sinkholes like Erstad and Finley create. A White Sox pitching staff that is around the plate often and tries to get ahead with first pitch strikes might be playing right into the Angels' hitting approach. The focus should be on Figgins and Anderson, since I don't think anybody can really stop Vlad the Impaler.
- Garland: Ozzie has him starting Game 3 in Anaheim. I'd rather see him pitch Game 2 at home, then have Buehrle and Garcia on the road (both of them have better road records). Having Garland pitching in his SoCal stomping grounds might put additional pressure in a crucial swing game like Game 3, Thunderstix and all.
- Same old, same old: Get ahead early, because the Angels bullpen buzzsaw of Shields, Escobar and K-Rod has been untouchable. Unlike the Sox, the Angels have Disney comeback pixie dust. Also, I am unsure whether the Sufjan tshirt magic works if I'm watching the game at my house. Hmmm. Jill says keep it close just in case.
- Media hex: ESPN has gotten on board the Sox bandwagon, which makes me nervous. I think the series goes 6 or 7.
