Baaaad Mistakes: Aybar's Gaffe Latest in Postseason Dominated by Goats

NEW YORK -- In China, the next year of the goat is not until 2015.

In the U.S., 2009 is the postseason of the goat.

Think about it: the most memorable moments of the playoffs so far have been screwups.

By watching a first-inning popup fall to Earth faster than a Colorado hoax balloon during the Angels' 4-1 loss to the Yankees in Friday's ALCS opener, Erick Aybar added his name to the list.

A long list.

---

---

Bucknor. Holliday. Gomez. Cuzzi. Nathan. Street. Papelbon. Punto. Utley.

And that's just three games into the second round.

The tradition of the fall goat stretches back to Snodgrass' muff in the 1912 World Series. For every postseason hero in baseball history, there has been a goat. We remember Orel Hershiser, Carlton Fisk and Willie Mays, but Bill Buckner, Mike Andrews and Mickey Owen, too.

"You can't go out there and say it was cold and that's why we lost. We got our [rear] whupped."
-- Angels Center Fielder Torii Hunter The debate has intensified, in the case of umpires, over how much "human error" is acceptable. And there were two more questionable calls in the ALCS opener, although neither was egregiously wrong, if at all.

But there's human error by the players, too. In 16 postseason games this year, there have already been seven blown saves -- more than in 2006 or 2007 and one short of last year's total (in 32 games).

Then there are the errors (Chase Utley and Matt Holliday) and baserunning gaffes (Carlos Gomez and Nick Punto).

These are supposed to be the best teams still playing in October -- and November, thank you very Bud -- so how do all these mistakes happen?

Really, it's not that more mistakes happen, but that the mistakes get magnified. Not just because of the bright spotlight and the national stage, but because the good teams playing this time of year will capitalize.

And so it was for the Angels on Friday. The first-inning disaster began when left fielder Juan Rivera made a throw to nowhere on Johnny Damon's single, allowing Damon to take second. Then with a run in and two out, Hideki Matsui skied a popup that came down within a few feet of shortstop.

Third baseman Chone Figgins said he yelled, "Aybar," early in the play. Aybar said he didn't hear a thing, and said the crowd noise wasn't a factor.

Hmmmm.

"Bad communication with 'Figgy,' " Aybar said through interpreter Jose Mota. "That's exactly what happened.

"I didn't hear anything. I saw him standing there and thought he was going to catch it."

Instead, the ball landed and Damon scored from second for a 2-0 Yankees lead. Plenty of cushion for CC Sabathia.

"One of us should catch it," said Figgins (0-for-16 at the plate this postseason).

Yeah. Aybar should.

There were two more Angels errors -- John Lackey's pickoff throw and a single skipping past center fielder Torii Hunter for an extra base -- to give them three, matching their season high.

"We haven't seen our guys crack the door open for a team like we did tonight in a long time," manager Mike Scioscia said.

"We can't count on the Angels making three errors every game," Sabathia said.

People tried to get the Angels to give a reason for the sloppy play, be it the layoff since they last played, or the weather.

But no one was biting.


"You can't go out there and say it was cold and that's why we lost," Hunter said. "We got our [rear] whupped."

The Yankees have a better offense than the Angels. And the Yankees have a better pitching staff than the Angels.

So for the Angels to win this series, they are going to have to play clean games, catch some breaks and win the close ones.

Sort of the opposite of Friday's game.

"Honestly," said losing pitcher John Lackey, who gave up two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, "it makes it easier to turn the page. We can just chalk it up to [mistakes] and come back and do it again tomorrow."

The Angels can point to their other two postseason series against the Yankees, when they lost Game 1 of the Division Series and came back to win. In fact, six of the past nine ALCS have been won by the team that lost the opener.

"You've got to act like you've got amnesia," Hunter said. "Because tomorrow we're going to be right back at it again."

With a chance to blot out the primary image of this ALCS so far -- two Angels players watching baseball hit the grass between then.

"It happens," Scioscia said. "These guys are not going to be robots out there. It's a mistake. It was ugly. But it happens."

And when it happens in October, everyone remembers.