Defensive Indifference

I like John Lackey. I think he’s one of the most underappreciated pitchers in baseball. I do not like his team. It has nothing to do with him, and everything to do with his manager, who insists on playing sainted smallball and is fellated in the press, and also the fans in Anaheim, who seem incapable of cheering for their team without some sort of noise-making implement.

I also understand how much it sucks to lose closely contested sporting events, both as a fan and an athlete. So it was with mild remorse that I quote these post-game comments from Mr. Lackey and proceed to tear them apart:

“It’s way different than last year,” said Lackey, who was 0-1 with a 2.63 ERA in two starts this postseason. “We are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us.” 

Then Lackey was asked to describe the feeling in the clubhouse, and without hesitation and with clear irritation, he shot back, “like I want to throw somebody through a wall.”

He was not joking, his anger palpable. Lackey pitched admirably, allowing two runs in seven innings on Monday night. Boston scored both in the fifth inning, the first on a groundout by Jacoby Ellsbury and the second on a double to left field by Dustin Pedroia, who recorded his first and only hit of the entire series. Lackey was unimpressed. “[On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke,” said Lackey, referring to a popup that was misplayed into three runs. “[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia’s] fist-pumping on second like he did something great.”

Oh, boohoo John.

Let’s break this down.

No the Angels are not a better team than the Red Sox. They played in a lousy division all year long and outscored their opponents by 83 less runs than Boston. They might have pitched and hit a little better in this series, but …

If you want to complain about Tacoby Bellsbury’s three-RBI single, maybe you should talk to Torii Hunter or Howie Kendrick. Either one of them could have made a play on that ball, but neither one did. In fact, now that I think about it, I think the Angels very well may have outhit and outpitched the Red Sox, but they did so many unconscionably stupid things all on their own that they really don’t have a right to complain about bad luck. They made a lot of their own misfortune.

Now we’re lashing out at Dustin Pedroia because he crushed a curveball you left hanging up in the zone, John? Really? First of all, I don’t know that Old Man Anderson gets to that ball in any park in America, but are you really going to whine about the ballpark, the very same ballpark Jon Lester had to pitch in? Maybe, your team should have taken care of business in the first two games, you know the ones you played at home, so that you didn’t face a must-win game in the ballpark you can’t stand so much. And maybe before you get on Pedroia for a little fist-pump, you should look in your own bullpen. The Angels should be banned from complaining about other team’s celebration as long as Francisco “FistPump/AcknowledgeGod/TreatEverySaveLiketheGame7oftheWorldSeries” Rodriguez is closing out games. As it turns out, that might not be too much longer.

Whining is unbecoming, John. Enjoy your winter on the golf course.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 6:01 am and is filed under Angels, Douchebags, Red Sox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.