Sunday, September 11, 2005 |
Lackey Dominant, Again: Angels 6, White Sox 1
The Angels’ offseason acquisitions of Kevin Appier and Aaron Sele made it that much easier to give Lackey more development time. He has the makeup of a workhorse, middle-of-the-rotation starter or a potential dominator at the back of the bullpen.The Halos wouldn't have to wait long; Lackey got the callup June 24 and never looked back. What was surprising was how much trust Scioscia put in his rookie, considering his September closed with a less-than-impressive 4.75 ERA, 3-1 record notwithstanding. But Big John dominated in the postseason, putting up an impressive 2.42 ERA over five games and two starts. As much as his brilliant Game 7 defined him, it also haunted his career for the next two years, as he struggled to rediscover that guy.
With the 2005 season nearing its close, we can safely say that Lackey -- the big-game dominator who's gone MIA for two years -- has mostly returned, games versus the Red Sox notwithstanding. Now, granted, this is a Chisox team minus the Big Hurt, but they're far from pushovers; getting this game was huge, especially considering the Rangers helped out by beating Oakland 7-4. Collecting an unusually low three strikeouts, Lackey nonetheless held the Southsiders scoreless over seven.
It was not such a good day, though, for El Duque, who got blasted in the very first inning, as Figgins, Anderson, and Erstad all hit solo homers. Steve "Are You Kidding Me?" Finley, hitting from the eight hole, collected a pair of hits; only Bengie Molina and Jeff DaVanon would go hitless. Knocked out in the second, Brandon McCarthy came on, but scarcely fared better, surrendering a pair of runs, though he did collect eight strikeouts over five and two thirds.
With the win, the Angels sweep the Sox and climb two games over the A's. As keeps getting repeated everywhere, the Angels' balance of the schedule is easier than the A's, though I never consider such things that meaningful; the thing is to win them one game at a time. Complacency will kill you, and Mike, at least, is right about that.
Also also, lets not forget that Lackey only started game seven because of a supposed injury to Ramon Ortiz. It's not like Mike planned on entrusting the rookie the most important start in franchise history - far from it, as Lackey started the postseason as the odd-man out.
His veterans had well earned that loyalty, had they not? You can rag on Ortiz and Appier all you want – but they were damn good throughout 2002.
1) 7 shutout innings allowing 3 hits and striking out 7 against the Twins, overshadowed by another offense ouburst late.
2) 2.1 solid but unspectacular (given how well the hitters were locked in) in game two of the WS.
3) 5 pretty good innings, the last in which he was undone by two hits that combined to go about 25 feet.
Ortiz, OTOH, had started three games and given up 13 runs in 13 innings. If there was an injury, then the Angels were damn lucky it showed up before game seven started.
: 9/12/2005 12:41:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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