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Mental Mistakes Defeat Angels, Win for Yankees
by Nadya Vlassoff
 After
four games in the ALCS, the New York Yankees are
up 3-1, and bring the series back to the Bronx
as they try to close out the Los Angeles Angels
in five games. While the Yankees have plenty of players
to thank, such as CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez,
Derek Jeter, Joe Girardi, and Mariano Rivera,
veteran players and an extremely talented line-up
that combined for over 220 homeruns during the
season were behind both Yankee wins along with
tight pitching performances from Sabathia and
AJ Burnet.
In the first game on a chilly night in the Bronx, the Yankees walked away with a 4-1 win. But it was with the help of an Angels error by Chone Figgins and Erick Aybar that allowed Johnny Damon to score. It was one of the three errors on the night by the Angels that led to two earned runs by the Yankees. So far, the Angels have been their own worst enemy since, as a team during the regular season, they were so successful at chasing down grounders and had one of the highest team batting averages in the American League.
Last night’s decimation of the Angels by the Yankees was an unstoppable assault from home plate as batter after batter punched holes through the confused Los Angeles defence. Although the Angels and the Yankees split their regular season match-ups at five apiece, so far the Yankees have continued to dominate in every aspect. The Angels put up a fantastic clutch play in the third game at Angels Stadium on Monday night when they managed to maintain their momentum. In fact, Game 3 revealed weaknesses in the normally ironclad Yankee team, as Joba Chamberlain was unable to keep the lead. While the Angels’ Bobby Abreu did have a base-running blunder, the Angels were able to win in 11 innings by playing like a team.
 Already
down 7-1 going into the 9th inning, the throwing
error in Game 4 was charged to Abreu who threw
a bomb from the outfield but it was Erick Aybar,
once again, who moved out of the way instead
of setting up the relay throw to Chone Figgins
at third base to get Rodriguez out at 3rd, or
even just stop Rodriguez from going for home
plate. Figgins was caught off-guard as the ball
went past him and allowed Rodriguez to score.
It was the 8th run of the game for the Yankees
that had no real bearing on the end result.
But it was still another sloppy play from the
Angels who look to have lost almost all confidence
in their fielding abilities.
Angels manager, Mike Scioscia, who was recently named AL Manager of the Year, must be at a loss for words since there’s really nothing else left to say to the Angels. Although Scioscia’s team was robbed of an out earlier in the game, the silent Angels manager showed little emotion and didn’t even bother to challenge the call. With Alex Rodriguez hitting .407 in the playoffs thus far with five homers, including a two-run shot in Tuesday’s game, A-Rod and the Yankees systematically picked apart a disgruntled Angels.
Now down 3-1, the Angels have one day to regroup and figure out how they can beat the Yankees on their home turf. The Angels need production from their line-up, they need to stop stranding runners on base, but most importantly, they need to keep their defence in check.
Catch Game 5 of the ALCS on Thursday at 8pm EST.
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