The League Championship Series gets underway tonight with the Chicago White Sox hosting the LAnaheim Angels. (One great thing about the Angels making it this far is that I get to write LAnaheim for another week!) Paul Byrd takes the mound for the weary Angels against second half phenom Jose Contreras.
Byrd’s great strength is wasted on the White Sox. Byrd doesn’t walk many batters, just 28 in 204 1/3 innings. But the White Sox don’t take many walks. They ranked 11th in the AL in walks drawn. What the White do is hit home runs. In the one game Byrd started against Chicago, he walked no one in 6 innings, but gave up two home runs bringing in three of the five runs he allowed.
Contreras is susceptible to the home run at Comiskey, having allowed 17 of his 23 dingers there. However, since the start of August, he’s allowed just three home runs total, two at his home park. Jose is very consistent across his splits, equally as good vs. lefties and righties and in various on-base situations.
Enjoy!
The White Sox are going to make this look simple. With the worn out Angels pitching staff facing the White Sox super low ERA it’s going to be childs play.
I agree that Bird’s great strength is wasted on a team that doesn’t draw walks, but you have to understand that Mike Scioscia really has no choice. With Colon hurt and Washburn sick, it is Bird for Game 1 and whoever is healthy for game 2. Then hopefully back to Lackey and Santana for games 3 & 4. Bird has the experience to step up and have a great game. He had one of the highest number of quality starts in the American League.
Remember that the Angels swept the Sox when they were there in September. I was able to be there and see one of the games. Hopefully that will be in the heads of the White Sox and give the Angels a little momentum rush. The Angels are one of those teams that find a way to win. But with two of their starters down, this series is going to be very interesting.
In the Spetember series the Sox were in a slump and didn’t have the luxury of beign well rested facing a team with injuries who just pitched everyone 12 times in 5 games.
Sox is 5. Angels MIGHT squeeze out a lucky one.
(Incidently I’m rooting for the Angels because they took out the Yankees. I just don’t think they’re gonna win.)
The obvious observation about the Angels being tired is, of course, the problem. Not so much from the regular lineups, as they often play every day, but from the point of view of the pitching rotations, the failure to reschedule the start of the series is not in the best interest of competition. Due to the rain out, the beginning of this series should have been moved back at least one day. It is not unheard of for T.V. (money does drive the sport) to show more than one sporting event and it would have provided a better competitive balance in the American League. Baseball needs a commissioner.
It’s not like they play three days in a row during the regular season or anything…
Yea, three days in a row, in three different cities, they do that all the time…