Angels counting on speed to slow the Yankees in ALCS
While the Los Angeles Angels could never seem to beat the Boston Red Sox in the postseason before doing so last week, the Halos actually have had good success against the New York Yankees, ousting them in the 2002 and 2005 playoffs.
Does that really mean anything, however, when the American League Championship Series begins on Thursday night? Not really, and the Bombers are -185 series betting favorites on WagerWeb.com.
If the Angels get the type of pitching they did against Boston, they will be tough to beat.
The Red Sox scored seven runs in the three games, and six of those came in the finale. Boston was limited to just 15 hits in getting swept.
There wasn’t much to complain about for L.A. in the Boston series, but it needs more out of leadoff hitter Chone Figgins to beat the Yankees. Figgins was 0-for-12 with six strikeouts against Boston, and thus the Angels couldn’t get really get their speed game going with just three stolen bases in four tries even though the Red Sox were the worst team in the majors this year at throwing out base stealers.
Even in games they allowed a stolen base, the Yanks were 45-32 this season. The Angels were successful 17 of 24 times in 10 games against the Yanks this year, but were only 3-4 against the Yanks in games they had a steal. New York manager Joe Girardi has talked to Yankees pitchers this week about how to combat the Angels’ speed on the base paths. He said some will be able to use a slide-step to speed up their delivery. Others will use pitch-outs and pickoff moves to counter the Angels’ aggressiveness. The Yankees also have two lefty starters in CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, who are in line to start five of the seven games.
While L.A.’s 148 steals were third in baseball this season, nobody was caught more times running than the Angels (63). In the Yankees’ sweep of the Minnesota Twins in their division series match-up, the Twins stole three bases in as many tries.
The Yankees and Angels each collected 1,604 hits this season, but the Yankees hit 71 more home runs.
“I think over here we play the game with speed,” L.A.’s Torii Hunter said. “I think they rely more on the three-run homer. I think relying on your speed always plays good.”
MLB Betting at WagerWeb.com
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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