On Friday night, the Angels pitched around David "Big Papi" Ortiz one too many times. Five at bats, a hit and four walks. His "big brother" Manny Ramirez made him pay that final time, hitting a prodigious 3-run shot out of Fenway Park off of Francisco Rodriguez to give the Red Sox a stunning 6-3 victory in game two of their American League Divisional Series. Perhaps the best strategy may have been to just pitch around both of them!
In game three of their best-of-five series against the Red Sox, the Angels Jered Weaver faced Curt Schilling (aka: the pitcher with the best post-season winning percentage in major league history). For three innings, the pitchers dueled without allowing a run. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Red Sox had a quick two run lead courtesy of Big Papi and Manny, each of whom deposited balls deep into the seats off of Weaver for solo home runs. The game and series for all intents and purposes was over at that point as there's not a better "big game" pitcher in baseball today than Schilling. The post-season master would pitch to form, shutting out the Angels for seven innings, giving up only six hits and a walk, while striking out four.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Red Sox would put the game completely out of reach, as they tallied seven runs off of Scot Shields, Justin Speier and Darren Oliver. With a 9-0 lead, the Sox felt safe in pulling Schilling... Howie Kendrick would plate Maicer Izturis in the bottom of the ninth off of Eric Gagne to spoil the Red Sox shut out, but that would be the only blemish on their parade today. Robb Quinlan's fly out to right fielder J.D. Drew ended the game and the Angels' season.
The Red Sox now await the winner of the series between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees for a chance to play in the 2007 World Series. The Indians lead the series two games to none going into tonight's game three of that series.
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The Angels had a great yr. Too bad they had a bunch of bad luck in the playoffs. Between Matthews being out for the series. Anderson getting pink eye. Kotchman being out for game 3. Thats a lot for any team to overcome. They had a great yr. Im sure next yr will be even better. With Kendrick hopefully playing the entire yr.
frrrrrrunkis
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