Schilling Defends Lackey....Sorta

Curt Schilling has a new post up at 38pitches.com where he talks about Lackey's comments. Here's some highlights:

Emotions for me are raw for days after a game, much less an hour or two. You ask me about something that I’m upset/fired up or/excited about and many times I will give an emotional and probably more times than I would like to admit, irrational, response.....but....The better team ALWAYS wins in October. Like it or not the better team wins, always. I don’t care what your regular season record is, it means zero other than to determine where we are playing. He was mad, their season was over, it happens and I completely understand his emotional response. Don’t put too much stock in it. Fact of the matter is the better team won and he got out pitched, twice. I don’t care about ‘bloopers’ or the ‘field effects’, both pitchers started even, Jon out pitched him. October has never been, and never will be about pitching good. October demands pitching great, pretty much every inning of every game. Good gets you early tee times.

Curt also gives his take on the failed squeeze play in last night's game.

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Somebody Call A Waahmbulance for Lackey

He's startin' to sound like ol' dumbass Hank!

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John Lackey Can't Handle the Truth

After the loss last night John Lackey showed he has no class.

"We lost to a team that's not better than us," growled pitcher John Lackey, who gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings. "We are a better team than they are. The last two days, we shouldn't have given up anything....."[Sunday] night they scored three runs on a pop fly that was called a hit, which was a joke," Lackey said, referring to Ellsbury's pop that fell between center fielder Torii Hunter and second baseman Howie Kendrick in Game 3.

"[Monday] night they scored on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball that anywhere else in America is an out, and he's fist-pumping on second base like he did something great."

It is almost like Dumbass Hank gave him some talking points.
Enjoy your time on the golf course you tool. We eat teams like yours for breakfast.

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View From the Other Side

We interviewed Chuck Richter, the executive editor of Angelswin.com, for his take on the ALDS.

FW: How confident are you in John Lackey after his last performance?

(Chuck @ Angelswin.com) - I'm cautiously confident. Confident in the sense that he can be dominant at any given time, especially after stinking up the joint in his previous start. On the 16th of September he struggled against the 4-A Athletics, giving up 5 runs in 5.1 innings, but got knocked around at the tune of 9 hits, when even his outs were hit hard. Then in Lackey's next start against the heavy hitting Texas Rangers, he hurled 6 scoreless innings, giving up just 2 hits, while fanning 12 Rangers. This season, Lackey is 2-0 against the Red Sox in 2 starts with a 2.81 ERA. In one of those starts he nearly threw a no no in Boston, but ended up giving up 2 runs on 2 hits in the 9th. Be that as it may, Lackey has not been himself in the 2nd half of the season causing some fans to be concerned.

FW: How much better is this year's Angel's team than last year?

(Chuck @ Angelswin.com) - Much better! Two reasons: Mark Teixeira & Health! The Angels were in bad shape in 2007 against the Red Sox in the ALDS. To sum it up, at one point Reggie Willits was our cleanup hitter as GA was hitting with one eye shut,. Plus, it didn't help that Vladimir Guerrero had no protection and rookies' Casey Kotchman & Howie Kendrick were simply overmatched.

FW: Will fans lose faith in Mike Scioscia if the Angels lose this series?

(Chuck @ Angelswin.com) - No! Mike Scioscia is respected by nearly all of the Angels fans. He is currently in my unbiased opinion one of the best manager's in the game of Baseball. I think the Angels fans will lose faith in the Halos ability to beat the Red Sox in a game that means something more than anything else. The feeling around our community forum and consensus for most Angels fans is, we're really nervous, though hopeful our 8-1 dominance over Boston in the regular season will carry over to post-season play.

FW: How do you think Teixeira will do in his first playoff appearance for the Angels? Will he be back next year?

(Chuck @ Angelswin.com) - I believe he'll do well if he doesn't try to do too much, but with Vladimir Guerrero hitting behind him, he won't have to be the savior so I'm sure he'll be relaxed and thus productive. As far as signing him in the off-season, I think we'd have to be considered Teixeira's #1 choice, especially if we get to the big dance. I believe this Angels ball club has all of the components to not only get there, but to win their 2nd World Series ring in the last 6 years.

FW: Who do you think was the MVP for the Angels this season?

(Chuck @ Angelswin.com) - This is a tough one considering we only had Teixeira since late July, otherwise he'd be the easy choice. I'm going to give this one to both Ervin Santana & Joe Saunders. Without these two dominating early on and solid throughout the season, who knows where the Angels would be at season end? Our starting rotation with Lackey missing the first 6 weeks of the season and not as dominating as he was in '07. Escobar missing the entire season and Jon Garland throwing beach balls for the majority of his starts -this would have been disastrous for a team that was unable to land the "big bat" in the off-season, a team that relied on good pitching and defense entering the 2008 season.

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John Lackey Could Have a Quick Exit

John Lackey is 3-6 in his career against the Red Sox with a 5.54 ERA. He did pitch well against them earlier this season but he was tattooed in his last start of the season giving up 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Or you could go by this great bit of insight by Halos Heaven :

One can only assume that Lackey's lackluster Friday night was a straight fastball session meant to delight Texas hitters and just break a sweat.

I'm sure they wanted to have Lackey go out there and throw meatballs to get ready for the playoffs; more great insight from a clueless Angels fan.

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