ALCS Playoffs; First Edition

The Boston Red Sox traveled to Los Angeles where the AL West Champion Angels were set to face the wild card team. The game was set to be a pitchers duel as John Lackey went for the Angels and Jon Lester went for the Red Sox. The game lived up to the billing also as each team stayed pretty evenly matched in hits versus plate appearances. The Sox approached the plate 35 times reaching base only 8 of them. The Angels did not fair much better as their 36 plate appearance only allotted for 9 base hits. The walks were 3 to 1 in favor of the Soxs giving them 1 more base runner for the night.

Even though this game was billed to be a pitching match up, that was actually where it was lost. In the seventh inning, Lackey made the biggest mistake of the night throwing a fastball up and in to the newest Red Sox, Jason Bay. Bay made him pay for putting it in his wheel house as he turned on it and launched the ball deep into the left field seats for a 2 run home run.

The only run that the Angels would get would come in the third as Tori Hunter would drive in Garrett Anderson. The Angels struggled all night trying to string together hits. It looked as though Lester kept them off balance by changing speeds all night.

These two teams lock up again on Friday night at 9:30 PM EST.