On the Brink, Toughest Test Awaits Halos

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It's too soon, America.

Too soon to thank baseball's Angels from the City of Angels. Too soon to assume they can answer our prayers.

The Red Sox are down but not out, which means we still might have Yankees-Red Sox and the bloated East Coast ego and hype that comes with it.

"We're not dead," Boston's Dustin Pedroia reminded everyone Friday night after the Angels faxed in another victory at Anaheim Stadium, 4-1, to go ahead 2-0 in the best-of-five American League Division Series.

---

---

Starting Sunday in Fenway Park, we'll find out if the Angels can close out baseball's most dangerous franchise when backed into a corner.

If the immediate past is prologue, then New Englanders are headed to a bitter winter. Runs in Orange County were as scarce as snowflakes for them. The Sox scored once in 18 innings. They batted .131.

This Sox club, though, might be no more vulnerable than other hard-pressed Sox teams of recent Octobers. Boston in 2004 and 2007 reeled of four and three playoff victories in do-or-die-games to vanquish the Yankees and Indians, respectively.

Kevin Youkilis is one of those holdovers.

"We've battled back and come further and won World Series," the third-baseman said. "Hopefully we can do it again."

Here's why the Angels are up 2-0 in a playoffs series for only the second time:

• Starters John Lackey and Jered Weaver each got 22 outs and, in a minor upset, outpitched their more heralded Sox counterparts, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett. The Angels led 4-1 when Weaver checked out in the eighth Friday night.

• The Angels are outhitting the Sox, whose .185 on-base percentage is well off L.A.'s .318 mark. That's not an upset. The Angels have a deeper, more selective lineup than they did in 2007 and 2008, when they were ousted in the first round by Boston, 6-1 in total.

• The Angels, as expected, are stealing bases to set up runs. After Vladimir Guerrero walked to lead off the seventh with the score knotted at 1-1 on Friday, Howie Kendrick replaced him and stole second base, allowing him to score on a two-out single by Maicer Izturis. Izturis then stole second, applying more heat to Beckett, who would allow a two-run triple to Erick Aybar.

Friday's hitting stars were Izturis, who whacked a curveball past second baseman Pedroia to illuminate the .311 batting average he posted this year with men in scoring position and two out; Aybar, the No. 9 hitter, who hit a key double in Game 1 and Friday hit a 96-mph pitch from Beckett beyond center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury; and Vladimir Guerrero, whose hit-and-run single in the fourth set up a tying run.

The Angels are playing at a high level.

"I feel good about our club because we're playing better baseball than I think a lot of people have seen from us in the playoffs before," said manager Mike Scioscia. "Last year, we showed glimpses of it.


"I feel good for these guys because it's a terrific bunch of guys that plays the game very, very hard. It's good to see them go out and get rewarded with a couple of wins, and on a national stage."

The Red Sox aren't hitting, which puts minor decisions under a thicker magnifying lens.

Such as David Ortiz swinging at four first pitches in the two games and not getting a hit off any them.

Such as Mike Lowell hacking early in the count nearly every time -- he's 0-for-7 and has seen only 15 pitches.

Such as Beckett charging into the seventh with only 75 pitches on the meter but starting Guerrero with three curveballs, all of them balls, although his bat hasn't been fast in the two games. The errant hooks led to a key walk.

"Vladdy, my approach hasn't changed much in the last six or seven years," Beckett said. "I'm defintiely not trying to leave the breaking ball up."

"We've battled back and come further and won World Series. Hopefully we can do it again."
-- Kevin Youkilis Not a lot of analysis is needed, though, to explain why the Red Sox have one more loss in this series than in their previous 10 playoff games against the Angels.

"We just aren't creating many chances," said No. 6 hitter Jason Bay, who is 1-for-5 with two walks.

"Good pitching stops a good offense," said the No. 5 hitter Ortiz, who is 0-for-8 with four strikeouts.

"We faced two very good pitchers, and we haven't hit for two games, which gets magnified because it's the playoffs," said Pedroia, who is 1-for-8 out of the lineup's two-hole.

Boston's biggest hit belongs to leadoff man Jacob Ellsbury. The first Sox player to put a first pitch into play against Weaver, he was rewarded with a leadoff triple in the fourth. Victor Martinez knocked him home with a one-out single.

The Angels said all the right things after moving within one victory of the League Championship Series.

"We know that we're going to continue playing aggressive, just like we've been playing so far," said Izturis.

The only other time the Angels opened a playoff series with two victories, the Brewers responded with three consecutive wins to capture the 1982 ALCS and add to manager Gene Mauch's painful legacy of playoff heartbreak.

But a more wrenching episode came in 1986, opposite the Red Sox, who, after losing three of four games, won three in a row to reach the World Series.

Wally Joyner played for the Angels in 1986. He admitted after Saturday night's win that his heart is still with the Californians.

"I am rooting for the Angels," Joyner said by phone from Utah, shortly after Brian Fuentes locked up the win by retiring Lowell, who represented the potential tying run. "I still have friends in the organization -- Mike Scioscia and some of his coaches." The hardest part might yet await, though.

"It is such a tough thing to get that last out," Joyner said. "I was part of that '86 team that couldn't get [it]."