Let's face it, this is a a gross match up and no one likes either of these teams. Unless one of these teams get extremely hot this will go to the wire, meaning that we will have to see a lot of this series or watch regular season hockey. As usual the Yanks have a devastating line-up, but this year they are also hitting some balls in October (Oh hey A-Rod way to play baseball). But it would be a stretch to say the bats are an advantage for the Yanks as the Angels (of ANAHEIM!) had 10 guys with a 100 hits. 10 dudes! They can obviously swing with anyone including the Yanks. The Angels also have a deeper starting rotation and can rely on five pitchers when they only need four to pitch out the LCS. Girardi is meanwhile talking about keeping Joba in the pen and reducing their staff to three guys: CC, Burnett, and Pettite which I suppose gets around the problem of not having a 4th pitcher...but can you really get 3 dominant starts out of CC in one LCS? I don't know, his problem in the postseasons past has been arm fatigue and that can bite the yanks if this goes the distance. And there is no reason why it shouldn't the Yanks and Angels split the regular season 5/5 and we can only assume the trend will continue. Of course the Yankees could go crazy and just knock everything out of their tiny park and end this thing in 5, but I see it a long series in which the Angels rotation will protect a patient and efficient offense. Texeira went the wrong way, Angels in 7."Both teams played hard...goodnight and godbless."
I would have considered the Yanks a no brainer in this one until I saw the Angels' performance against the Red Sox. That game 3 sweep piece in Boston was hella improbable. Papelbon on the mound with a two run lead and 2 down in the ninth, and the bottom ninth of the Angels order at the plate. From there to the win was just clutch hitting and quality at-bats, culminating with Vlad delivering a 2-run single. The Yanks are intense, but two years ago I saw CC dominate an ALDS start only to fizzle in two ALCS losses. Given that he will likely get a couple starts, and given that his performances are either hot or not, Sabathia is the key to this series. Yankees in 7.
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