Baseball in the AL East is a different animal. Like a cold wind in the face, the Angels were slapped with that reality last night at a chilly and a New York-loud Yankee Stadium.
Dudes, this isn’t So Cal. Welcome to the real world.
Before the game Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of the windy and cold night, “The trick is to go out there and get it done under any conditions.”
PHOTOS: YANKEES BEAT ANGELS TO TAKE ALCS LEAD
The Yankees got it done, delivering a crisp 4-1 victory in Game 1 of the ALCS before 49,688 charged-up fans. The Angels couldn’t deal with the weather, the ballpark or the pitching storm that was CC Sabathia.
Angels shortstop Erick Aybar, who looked like he was dressed to be a deckhand on “The Deadliest Catch,” and third baseman Chone Figgins let Hideki Matsui’s two-out pop drop in the first inning, handing the Yankees a key run and setting the tone.
Both made critical mistakes on the play. Figgins was calling, “Aybar!” to try to get the shortstop to make the catch. Aybar, who was wearing an Angels cap with ear flaps, said he didn’t hear anything with the crowd noise and thought Figgins, who never cleared the area, was going to make the grab.
“There was no communication,” Aybar said. “If he would have communicated, I would have heard him clearly and he would have heard me, too. I saw him standing there and I thought he was going to catch it. There was no verbal at all.”
Figgins said he was calling for Aybar to make the play. But he did not get out of the way and that made Aybar think Figgins was going to make the catch as the ball plunked on the edge of the outfield grass as Johnny Damon scored.
“When you’re in a loud stadium, the verbal is going to be very difficult,” Scioscia said. “On that ball they should be able to figure out one of the guys are going to call it, and you need more of a visual [sign] to make sure the ball is being tracked properly.”
The Angels didn’t do any of that. “It was ugly,” Scioscia said.
That first inning started with an eight-pitch at-bat by Derek Jeter, who lashed a single to right. Damon singled him to third as left fielder Juan Rivera, who looked lost, made a terrible throw back to the infield, allowing Damon to go to second.
Little things mean so much in October, especially because of the way Sabathia pitched. The Angels were not up to the task. Just as the Twins made key mistakes, the Angels made mistakes.
If the Angels don’t clean up their act, this series will be over quickly. When you play these Yankees there can be no errors. You can’t lose your focus for a nanosecond.
The non-California weather freaked out the Angels from the start. This was the coldest game in the new ballpark. It was 45 degrees at game time. During batting practice, the Angels were sporting everything from head scarves to ski masks.
This is the House of the Strange Pop-up. Remember when Mets second baseman Luis Castillo dropped what should have been the game-ending pop and hustling Mark Teixeira scored from first with the winning run.
You can’t take anything for granted at Yankee Stadium or in New York.
It should be noted that when Torii Hunter popped to short to lead off the fourth, Jeter waved for the ball, and made the catch using two hands.
The Angels committed three errors. They do not have the kind of firepower to overcome that many mistakes.
“Anybody can play this game with 70 degrees and it’s beautiful,” Scioscia said before the game. “When it’s going to be like it is tonight, you have to keep your focus defensively.”
The Angels didn’t and learned a bone-chilling lesson.