ALCS Game 5 recap: Angels alive

The Yankees got a gift when Mike Scioscia, who for The Southpaw's money is the best manager in The Bigs, made the biggest mistake of his career. He never should have removed his starter in the seventh inning.
Never.
We've talked before how good John Lackey is.
He burst onto the scene in 2002, winning nine games in the regular season and Game 7 of the World Series at the ripe age of 23. He scattered four hits and one run over five innings during that classic confrontation with the San Francisco Giants.
Since then, Lackey's best season was a 19-9 performance in 2007 that included a 3.01 ERA. In his two most recent seasons, the big right-hander's battled some injuries, but his career totals are still very impressive.
The soon-to-be free agent is 102-71 with a 3.81 ERA and 1.306 WHIP.
Those numbers are virtually the same as the much more heralded Josh Becket (104-66, 3.83, 1.221 WHIP).
Big John, at 6-foot-6, towers over most of the opposition.
He is one of just six pitchers who has won at least 11 games in each year since 2004. The others: CC Sabathia, Derek Lowe, Johan Santana, Javier Vazquez, and Jason Marquis.
Heading into Thursday, Lackey had been 44-1 when the Angels had scored four runs or more.
He showed how much a battler he is when he pleaded with manager Mike Scioscia to let him stay on the hill with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

Bobby Abreu had been crucial to the Angels' success.
Anaheim was 4-0 in games the right fielder has gotten a hit.
The Angels are 1-3 in games in which he hasn't. Abreu did walk four times in that one win, however.
In Game 5, Abreu singled but the Angels won.

Torii Hunter embarrassed A.J. Burnett when he stole second in the third inning. Hunter's jump was so good he could have stopped, tied his shoes and read "Murder on the Orient Express" and still reached second standing up.

Speaking of Hunter, the rundown play with which the Yankees got him out later in that inning was run to near perfection.
Fielders should "show" the ball to the runner. That means they don't put the ball in their glove, but hold it in their throwing hand as they chase down the runner. That way they just have to toss the ball like they're throwing a dart to get the guy out.
You would think Major League players would be able to run the play successfully on a regular basis. However, too often you'll see someone screw it up by fumbling the exchange when they run with the ball in their glove.

After listening to Chip Caray ("Base hit. Caught" and "Here's the throw to the plate -- not in time!" when no throw was made.), it's a joy to hear Joe Buck.
Consider this: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and USA Today, all wrote scathing critiques of Caray early in the playoffs and continued to do so in the NLCS.

Is it the Southpaw, or is Brian Fuentes pitching scared? He look like he didn't want anything to do with Hideki Matsui. It was similar to Jonathan Broxton against Matt Stairs except Matsui never hit a dramatic home run off Fuentes.