Game 6 of the ALCS was postponed by rain (actu ally, it was more like a monsoon) at Yankee Stadium last night, but it was the Angels who came up winners. John Lackey, the Angels’ bulldog, their CC Sabathia, said he is good to go.
Lackey wasn’t talking about going if there is a Game 7. He knows where his Angels’ backs are these days, up against that short wall in right, down 3-2 in the ALCS. He was talking about Game 6. That’s all you need to know about the Angels’ mindset. Lackey will be in the bullpen tonight, ready to pitch.
“It’s my bullpen day anyway,” Lackey said.
And if the Angels survive, Lackey will be there for Game 7, ready to start, bulldog vs. bulldog. Even if the Yankees win Game 7, they will have spent a CC bullet that they could have used in the World Series opener against the Phillies.
The Yankees don’t want any part of this series going seven games. The pressure is squarely on them to finish this tonight.
“This gives us another day to rest up our big horse,” closer Brian Fuentes said. “This [rainout] is a little more in our favor.”
Torii Hunter said the Angels were in a similar situation in Boston in the ALDS as the Yankees are now.
“You really want to get it done, all you got it in the back of your head, is you don’t want those guys to come back,” Hunter said. “When we were in Boston that was in the back of my head, I know for sure. You don’t want that to happen so you try your best to get it done, and it’s a lot of pressure.”
The Angels now have more pitching options. Joe Saunders will start tonight against Andy Pettitte. They can use Lackey out of the bullpen, along with Jered Weaver and Scott Kazmir. All that matters is tonight’s game.
“You can’t worry about a Game 7,” Lackey said. “I’ll be available [tonight]. We have to get to a Game 7. You can’t look too far ahead. A lot of things will be involved, but I’m OK to go [tonight].”
The Angels are looking at tonight’s game as a Game 7, just as the 7-6 win over the Yankees on Thursday night was also an elimination game for them.
“We still have our whole staff out there for tomorrow,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. He said Lackey was still “in play” for Game 6, adding, “There’s no sense talking about a Game 7.”
Here’s the emotional edge the Angels gained last night. Now if they can get this to a Game 7, they have more than a fighting chance with Lackey on the mound for that start. They have hope.
“He’s a big game pitcher,” Fuentes said of Lackey, who will be a free agent. “If I’m a GM, he’s the guy I put at the top of my list.”
Asked if he was happy about the rainout, Lackey said, “I want to be in the game as often as I can be in the game.” Asked how much he would like a Game 7 start, Lackey said, “We’re getting too far ahead of us.”
The Angels are in 2004 ALCS Red Sox mode: Worry about one pitch at a time. This is when teams are most dangerous, as the Yankees know because they have yet to recover from that 2004 ALCS collapse.
When Lackey came into the Angels clubhouse, he was soaked from the rain. No, he was not doing a rain dance.
“I’ve been working out, watching football, man,” he said.
Lackey is a good old boy from Texas and shares a 20-year lease on a suite at the Cowboys’ new stadium.
He admitted he was happy for the rainout for a football reason, “I can get to watch some more of it now, so it’s all good.”
In so many ways, this rainout was all good for the Angels.