All at Once, Vlad, Halos Exorcise Demons

BOSTON -- Even in the afterglow of the finest postseason moment of his career, Vladimir Guerrero wasn't thinking only about himself.

If that wasn't obvious by his words, one could tell as soon as he stepped to the interview podium in Fenway Park Sunday afternoon wearing a Nick Adenhart T-shirt.

So when he was asked, specifically, how great it must have felt for him to not only interrupt his personal history of playoff disappearances but also the Los Angeles Angels' dismal record against Boston with his game- and American League Division Series-winning hit, Guerrero talked not about himself, but about the teammate killed in a car crash six months ago.

---

---

"Yes, it's one of the biggest hits. I'm not going to say it's the biggest hit, but one thing it does bring to mind is that we lost a teammate earlier this year," Guerrero said, through an interpreter, a half-hour after the Angels had finished off the Red Sox in three straight, 7-6. "When it comes down to honoring Nick Adenhart and what happened in April in Anaheim, in that respect, yes, [it's] probably the biggest hit, because I'm dedicating that to a former teammate, a guy who passed away."

Guerrero and his Angels teammates have pointed at the unifying force of Adenhart's memory every time they've reached another milestone this season, and credited it for the way they've reached them. Certainly, the focus, resilience and ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles has to be coming from somewhere. "It seems like a more emotional team, a little more gutsy, more put together,'' Guerrero said.

The Angels had put themselves in position to finish the Sox off Sunday with late-inning magic in Game 2 in Anaheim Thursday, mainly Erick Aybar's two-run triple.

Still, few obstacles seem as unscalable as what the Angels faced Sunday -- top of the ninth inning, down by two runs, Jonathan Papelbon taking the mound 26-for-26 in scoreless postseason innings in his career, and a sold-out crowd rising in anticipation, and probably planning on bundling up for Game 4 Monday night.

It got worse for the Angels: two outs, and one strike away from that fourth game, against Aybar. Then one strike away against Chone Figgins. Then one strike away against Bobby Abreu. Papelbon never got any of those third strikes. Two batters after that -- an intentional walk to Torii Hunter to load the bases with the lead now down to one run, then Guerrero's slashing of Papelbon's first pitch into centerfield to score the jubilant Figgins and Abreu -- Papelbon was walking off the mound to some completely unfamiliar exit music: scattered boos.

"You know,'' said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, "we knew going into it, one of their big strengths was their bullpen, and you're not going to get to [Papelbon] very often. But we did this afternoon. ... I can't say enough about our guys, just good at-bats with two outs in the ninth, just to string together those hits, get the tying run to the plate and eventually to second base.

"And I felt great for Vlad -- hopefully a momentum-builder for him. That's the biggest hit he's had.''


When Guerrero came to the plate, it didn't seem terribly obvious that this would be the time he'd break out. Covering four postseasons, from 2005 to the first two games of this series, he had one RBI in his last 19 games. For the series going into that at-bat, his 3-for-9 total looked decent, but still, no RBI or extra-base hit. The grand slam off Mike Timlin in the 2004 playoffs, and the six RBI he had in that series, felt like ancient history. (At the same time, the Angels' four playoff series losses to Boston in four tries were very fresh, especially after 1986 postseason hero Dave Henderson threw out the first pitch Sunday.)

In Game 3, though, Guerrero had gone 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored before facing Papelbon in the ninth, and he seemed due in more ways than one: Scioscia praised him for his previous plate appearances, working counts, seeing more pitches, basically going against his free-swinging instincts.

"You're not going to get to [Papelbon] very often. But we did this afternoon. ... I can't say enough about our guys."
- Angels manager Mike Scioscia Yet Sox manager Terry Francona weighed that and chose to play the percentages in the ninth; with first open after Abreu's clutch double off the wall in left brought the Angels to within 6-5 and put Figgins at third as the tying run, Francona put Hunter on and bet on his money closer to get Guerrero.

"Pap throws strikes, and he had had a lot of success against Guerrero,'' he said. "I guess, put in a nutshell, we thought it would put us in a better chance to win. It didn't work.''

The fact that the previous three Angels (excluding Hunter and his free pass) had nicked Papelbon up, especially with two strikes, helped enormously. "When you see a guy in front of you who took a lot of pitches,'' Abreu said, "it helped you see the velocity of the fastball and especially on the splitter, too -- and his commitment and command.''

Not that Guerrero isn't already as aggressive a hitter as exists in baseball today, but he said he was ready to go after the first good pitch he saw and had a good idea what he would see, again because of what he'd already seen in that inning from Papelbon.

It was a quintessential display of the kind of smart, unyielding ball the Angels have played all season. Starter Scott Kazmir got whacked all over the yard in the second, third and fourth innings and fell behind 5-1, but it could have been a lot worse. The Angels chipped away to get it to 5-4, then saw Papelbon, in with two outs in the eighth, pick the tying run off first to end the inning. The Sox followed by putting up an insurance run in the bottom half.

"Our guys were just saying, 'Let's get that tying run up, somebody get on and let's keep having good at-bats,''' Scioscia said.

"We don't take anything for granted, but we were in a good situation,'' Francona said. "And that's the way they've played all year -- they don't stop playing.''

The Angels kept playing long enough to get their most dangerous hitter to the plate with the game and series in the balance, and Guerrero reversed a career's worth of letdowns in big spots with ... well, one of the biggest hits of his life, at least.

"Hopefully it'll be the start of something good,'' Scioscia said, "because we're going to need him swinging the bat like he can, moving forward.''