You know there are times that I watch the team that is based down the road from where I live now and wish that the A's had the same aggressive edge to their play. And then I'm reminded on nights like tonight of just how terrible a death it can be if you're overly aggressive.
The Angels battled the Red Sox to get to a 2-2 tie going into the ninth inning thanks to Torii Hunter, Kendry Morales led off the ninth inning with a double off the wall. Scioscia pinch ran for Morales with Reggie Willits. Willits was then bunted over to third and Erick Aybar had a chance to bring in the go-ahead run and Scioscia being Scioscia, he put on the squeeze, only Aybar flailed aimlessly at the pitch, missed it and Willits was hung out to dry and Varitek put on a tag and wound up dropping the ball falling to the ground (gee, a controversial play in the playoffs involving Jason Varitek in Boston against an AL West opponent in the first round - where have I seen that before?). It made me smile because Aybar then made the final out of the inning grounding out to, yes, Mark Kotsay.
Sometimes that aggressive play works for you and you look good doing it, but when it goes awry, damn does it look bad because then it looks like you can't do fundamental things like bunt.
Regardless, the Angels season is over and really, their great regular season means nothing when all is said and done because they ultimately only got two more home games than the A's did. It will be interesting to see what happens with that team now. What about Vlad's future? What about Teixeira (is he headed to Baltimore)? And do they lose a lot of the fickle So Cal fan if the Dodgers happen to go to the World Series and win? Interesting times in LAAAAA LAAAAA land.
Who would've thought if there were four teams left playing that the former A's playing major roles in this playoffs would be Joe Blanton, Mark Kotsay, Andre Ethier and Carlos Pena? Not I.
