ALDS Game 3 Rewind: How Sweep It Is – Angels 7, Red Sox 6

The Angels swept the Red Sox.  Go ahead and read that sentence again.  Really soak it in.  The Angels swept the Red Sox.  Feels good doesn’t it?

The Angels soak in their sweep of the Red Sox.

Beating the Red Sox in the ALDS is one thing, but sweeping them is quite another and finishing them off with gut-wrenching comeback, well, that’s just gravy.  The comeback and sweep doesn’t just clinch the series for the Angels, it sends a message to Boston and the rest of the league.  This isn’t an Angel team that got lucky or had to scratch and claw its way to victory.  This is a team that can’t be held down, that can’t be intimidated by anybody and best of all, has a true killer instinct.

The Angels could very easily have just closed up shop down by four runs late in the game and let the Red Sox get their win.  And why not?  They had a 2-0 lead, they just need one more win, they can try again Monday or even Wednesday if they need to.  But that wasn’t good enough for them, they wanted the sweep, to give back to the Red Sox at least a little bit of that pain and frustration that they had inflicted upon them the last two years.  And that is exactly what they got.

Really you couldn’t have scripted it any better.  Now it is the Red Sox turn to skulk home early in the post-season and ask start asking themselves where it all went wrong and what must be done to get this team over the hump.  Meanwhile the Angels will be more than happy to continue on their quest to win a title.  They got their taste of revenge today and damn it tastes good.  Now let’s hope that they are still hungry for more.

The Angels celebrate their series win on Boston’s home turf.  It is such a beautiful sight, I think I might cry.

Angelic Accomplishments:

• A clean inning for Fuentes!!!!  Tito picked the right time to finally get himself back on track didn’t he?  I’m not trying to jinx it or anything, but after his strong performance today, I am going to be a lot less nervous the next time he has to close a game.
• Scott Kazmir is going to catch some flack for his subpar performance, but he should still get a lot of credit for this win.  Kaz didn’t let the wheels come off after the fourth inning, shutting the Sox down for the next two innings to keep the Halos in the game so that they could make their epic comeback.

Devilish Details:

• A lot is going right for the Angels, but they still can’t do anything right with the bases loaded can they?  Rivera’s GIDP with the bases loaded was just brutal and it nearly cost them the game.  Good thing he redeemed himself in the 8th inning.
• If anyone would like to send Reggie Willits some fan mail, be sure to send it to his new address, Mike Scioscia’ doghouse.  Reggie has absolutely no excuse for getting picked off like he did in the 8th inning, especially since he nearly got picked off earlier in the same at-bat.

Halo Hero:

• Vladimir Guerrero

Redemption thy name is Vladimir Guerrero.  Let’s be honest, when the BoSox intentionally walked Torii Hunter to get to Vlad in the ninth, we all kind of thought it was over for the Angels.  Guerrero could never hit in clutch post-season situations and hasn’t been able to hit a fastball like Papelbon’s in two years.  When he roped that single into center, I wasn’t just happy that the Angels won, I was happy that they won because of Vlad.