The Angels are on one of the biggest stages possible and coming close to embarrassing themselves. They’re now down 0-2 in the ALCS to the Yankees and they’ve committed five errors, three in Game 1 and two in Game 2. The most egregious error ended Game 2 in the 13th when Maicer Izturis tried to turn a double play on a ball in the 3-4 hole and he threw it away. I really don’t have that much of a problem with Maicer trying to go to second on that play (they needed both outs desperately) but he needs to set his body up more before making that throw. And how about Chone Figgins? Anyone else notice that if he picks the missed throw up cleanly he can probably get Jerry Hairston Jr. out at the plate? Maybe it’s just me. Figgins also made a throwing error in the 6th on a ball hit by Mark Teixeira. Coupling that with Chone’s 0fer in the playoffs and you could tell it wasn’t his October (until the 11th inning).
The only excuse for the Angels is that the Yankees committed three errors including botched grounders by Jeter and Cano on easy plays, suggesting the crappy weather conditions affected everyone. Even if the conditions have been awful, all the Angels’ mistakes from Game 1 can’t be excused. How can you make that many screwups? Erick Aybar and Figgins let a popup drop between them after Juan Rivera had made a throwing error in the 1st, Torii Hunter wasn’t able to field a Jeter hit to center, and John Lackey threw away a pick off attempt. This was the exact same charade put on by the Angels in Boston last year in Game 2 where they made two errors and let a popup drop in center that allowed a rally to happen. The Angels couldn’t hit CC Sabathia in Game 1 but didn’t give themselves a chance to win with all their mistakes. In Game 2 they couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position and got some bad calls from the umps but it was their fielding errors that directly cost them the game. Arrggghh, so frustrating. Good thing is it’s a best of 7 (which only means they have two games to commit more errors!).
