Steve Finley led off the inning with a single. With no one on, Scioscia had to let him hit. 🙂 That’s his second hit of the post season.
Kennedy follows with a hit and run single, but Finley can’t advance to third on the hard hit to left.
Update: The Angels give away an out as Figgins sacrifices. That sets up power hitter and great RBI man Orlando Cabrera.
Update: Cabrera taps one to third. Crede double clutches, doesn’t throw home, then throws late to first. The Angels take advantage of another fielding miscue.
Update: Wow. Guerrero taps back to Contreras. He goes for the double play and gets the out at second, but Iguchi throws the ball away as Cabrera barrels into the second baseman. The runner scores from third to give the Angels a 2-0 lead. The Angels put the ball in play, and good things continue to happen.
Update: Contreras gets Anderson to ground out to the shift to end the inning. The Angels luck continues. Two runs score on two soft grounders as fielders make bad decisions.
Iguchi is only a mediocre second baseman. He’s fine for ground balls and line drives, but he has little rang for pop flies, e.g. Konerko makes more catches than he should down the line, and Iguchi has poor mechanics when it comes to turning double plays. There was speculation early in the season that in Japan they don’t try to take the fielder out so Iguchi isn’t good and getting the base and avoiding the runner. I don’t know if that’s reason is true, but he’s awful at avoiding contact with the runner.