I had to work, so I was watching back and forth, back and forth, but wow. Just wow.

It didn’t feel like the Sox were going to win this game. It just didn’t feel right. I mean, the 9th was bad enough: Bay gets unlucky and gets a double when that, 9 times out of 10, is at least a triple or a home run. Then Kotsay send a rope down the 1st base line and Tex snares it. I just didn’t think it’d work out, but then Mr. Jed hit a ball that OH SO BARELY got through the infield — inches. That’s all it was.

Best ALCS possible this year: Red Sox, Rays. Can’t wait to watch it.

John Lackey :

“It’s way different than last year,” said Lackey, who was 0-1 with a 2.63 ERA in two starts this postseason. “We are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us.”

and this is my favorite…

“[On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke,” said Lackey, referring to a popup that was misplayed into three runs. “[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia’s] fist-pumping on second like he did something great.”

You know I wanted to just congratulate the Angels and their fans at being a great organization and an amazing year…but, Eff them. Everyone says these guys play baseball the “right” way, but truth is the organization act like 16 year old girls pissed off the captain of the football team just asked another girl to the prom. They bitch about everything and deserve to lose.

Whats the quote? IF you want to be the man you have to BEAT the man… Red Sox Nation learned that lesson the hard way, Angels and their fans want things given to them.

So Mr. Lackey why did you lose to an obviously inferior team? LOL..

Perhaps…. Boston ERA = 2.69 Angel ERA 4.67 or how about the 8 for 40 with RISP?

Yeah its Fenway and the bloop singles…

What a classless team, organization and fanbase. Gene would be embarrassed.

The Red Sox played well and deserved to win.The Angels,on the other hand,played like crap and we got what we deserved.I hope we meet again next October .The Halo will shine in 09.

I knew I’d fall asleep so I set the DVR; man was I happy when I watched the ending!!!!

I don’t think Lackey’s boorishness reflects on the entire team, he’s just a poor sport but better next luck next year SUCKA!!

I know the Sox/MFY rivalry is unique but the Sox & LAAAAAAAAAAA have quite a thing going on.

Again. thanks for the threads!

They continue to prove it’s the organization and the WHOLE team, not a few key “stars”. Let’s just hope my Patriots can make it this far.

The better team won. It’s as simple as that. The Angels are an awful defensive team. When your best glove is at 1B, you’re in trouble.

Youk (.222 AVG 1 RBI), Ortiz (.235 AVG 1 RBI), and Pedroia (.059 AVG 1 RBI) were awful at the plate. Bottom-of-the-order hitters—Tek, Lowrie, and Coco—scored 2 runs each. Mark Kotsay hit .300 AVG and made some very nice plays at 1B. Talk about momentum sucking …

In last night’s game we saw the worst in both managers: Tito’s loyalty to a player who didn’t deserve it (Masterson) and Scioscia’s masterful ability to run himself out of innings. I’m a Francona fan and think he is one of the best managers in baseball, but his use of Masterson in this series was borderline criminal. Twice Tito brought Masterson back out to start an inning after the reliever struggled the inning before—and each time it almost cost the Sox the game. Masterson walks too many hitters to be used in big spots in close games. He also isn’t a groundball pitcher. Scioscia is a decent manager, who traditionalists overrate because he plays “small ball.” The squeeze play was inspired, especially since MDC was busting Aybar inside to prevent it. The threat of the squeeze is almost always better than the play itself. Thanks Scioscia!

John Lackey is punk. His body language on the mound is awful, which shows his teammates up when they make bad plays behind him. Twice Jon Lester outpitched him. Kendrick’s bobble didn’t cost the Angels a run. They weren’t going to double up Taco. The ball wasn’t hit hard enough. Also, with two outs, Ellsbury scores from first just as easily as Tek scored from second on Dusty’s double.

Again, on the Orange County defense, Willits’ dive made a single a double (he was lucky that ball went into the stands). If Willits is your defensive replacement in RF, you’re team is in trouble.

Finally, someone tell Jason Bay not to slide head-first into the plate. That’s a great way to break a hand or finger, or jam a wrist. I guess it’s just a case of Bay being Manny ….

Also, as maligned as Varitek is bc of his stick, he makes up for it behind the plate. How many times have we seen catchers come unglued in a situation like the one with Willits?

I can not wait until Friday —am bummed that Monday’s game is an afternoon game as I am stuck in class from 330-830. Go Sox!!

I admit it; I thought the series was going back to Anaheim when the Halos had a man on 3B with 1 out.

Although it was exciting, there wass absolutely no reason for Scioscia to call a suicide squeeze. A medium range fly brings home that run. If Scioscia didn’t think Aybar could put the ball into the outfield, pinch hit. It was one of many critical gaffes over the course of the series that allowed the Red Sox to scrape an ALDS victory. And I’m glad the series ended last night. The Angels looked like they were on the cusp on playing good ball.

My hat’s off to Mark Teixeira. The man was a stone-faced killer the entire series. If Big Tex walked if he didn’t see his pitch, and he made several run-robbing plays defensively at 1B.

My series MVP votes are split three ways: Jon Lester, Jason Bay, and Howie Kendrick. I’m not sure who helped the Sox the most.

“I’m [ticked], I’m upset, this one’s going to be with me for a while,” Hunter said. “It doesn’t feel good, because we’re a better team than they are. But they’re moving on.”

The Angels are going home, their next few weeks sure to be filled by bitterness and emptiness.

“I didn’t make any plans until Halloween,” Teixeira said. “I fully expected us to be there at the end of October.”

Can somebody please explain to me WHY THE FUCK they think they’re better than us? Sox Run Differential in the regular season: +151; Angels: +52. Hunter and Tex could just shut the fuck up.

we drafted Teixeira in 98, but didn’t sign him. Quite the player.

I’m in the U.S. and saw game 1 live, pretty cool stuff.
Real class post above, what a turd. Hey Angels, you need to actually need to play the field and hit with runners on in order to win at this level.
Surely, they didn’t think they were better then we were this year? Lets see them get 95 wins playing NY, Toronto and the Rays as often as we do.

I’m glad we lost that game. I wish we hadn’t lost the series, and it’s painful to watch the team go home AGAIN in early October, but I’m glad we lost.

I remembered last night why I watch baseball. Because, at the heart of it, it’s a friendly competition between a couple of groups of guys. On any given night, any given team can win.

I don’t buy into the BS on here that the Red Sox were the “dominant” team and “clearly” were going to win, and I don’t buy that odd sense of entitlement the Sox (or a great number of fans, at least) suddenly acquired four years ago. It’s kind of fun to watch a fanbase start winning and then accuse other fanbases of the same sort of dredgery they practiced for…I don’t know, decades.

But that doesn’t matter. In this particular series, you guys simply outplayed, outclassed us. We made some dumb mistakes, sure (suicide squeeze? seriously??). Some crucial calls didn’t go our way, sure. TBS was as annoying as h-ll to listen to, sure. But that’s baseball! Anything can happen at any moment in the game, and it isn’t over until the fat lady sings.

This series really put things in perspective: This isn’t simply about winning. It’s about cheering for a competitive group you love to watch and hoping they put their best effort out there. When it becomes all about the World Series, and the team’s worth becomes all about winning that ring, you become George Steinbrenner. And I think that’s the one thing (or, person) we can all agree on despising.

I know your tendencies are going to push you to write this off as some kind of rationalization. It isn’t. As you probably saw on Friday night, this series was getting under my skin in a big way. Watching a team we knew could perform much better than it ultimately did hurts. But losing is enough to take a step back and ask “why is this such a life and death matter?”

But it was damn exciting to watch these two teams go at it for four games. To finally see a competition was awesome.

I tip my hat to Sox and wish them the best of luck against the Rays, regardless of how I hope that series ultimately turns out.

Mueller hit a true single up the middle, Lowrie hit a ball that barely got out of the reach of Hendricks and there is a good chance he would got the ball if he was playing a bit deeper…

The Angels bad positioning and fielding played as much to their defeat as Sox hitting, there was lots of luck on the Sox side, much like Youklis’s double in Game 1 in the ALCS.