Momentum Swings In Angels Favor for Game Two

NFL News - October 9th, 2009 - Written by John

Just over 24 hours ago, the Los Angeles Angels were bombarded with questions about their ineptitude against the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs, winning only one game in their previous 13 meetings. They had been eliminated by Boston in each of their last three series, and could never even sniff a chance at advancing.

But Torii Hunter, only on the team for two years, was the most vocal about forgetting the trend and focusing on the future, changed the entire face of the series before it even really started. His three-run moon shot in the fifth inning broke open a scoreless game and the Angels went on to win 5-0.

All of the sudden, the pressure is on the Sox, who failed to win the AL East for the first time since 2006 and appear to have lost some of their mystique.

Oddsmakers are going with the trend, favoring the Angels behind the arm of Jared Weaver in Game Two, against the playoff tested Josh Beckett, according to BetUS. Los Angeles is surrendering 1 1/2 runs in the contest with a payout of +190. They are expecting a relatively low-scoring game with an over/under of eight and both teams are getting an individual over/under of four.

The Angels, who have one of the best offenses in baseball, were untested Thursday largely because Boston's offense was non-existant. They only totaled four hits, not near enough to account for their four errors, and were shut out in the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

Now they will have to regroup against one of the AL's best pitchers in Weaver, who is 16-8 this year with an ERA of 3.75. He won his only decision against Boston this year and has an ERA of 0.66 in two starts.

But it's not like they won't have a fearsome pitcher on the mound as well. Beckett pitching in the second slot gave many reason to believe that the Boston Red Sox was the primary contender with New York for the league title. He was 17-6 this season and had a strikeout-walk ratio of nearly 4-to-1. He was the team's best pitcher, but manager Terry Francona opted to pass him over for Jon Lester to give him extra rest.

He was 4-0 in Boston's championship 2007 campaign but struggled last year with an ERA well over eight in last year's postseason.

"Obviously, last year was a little bit different," he told Yahoo! Sports. "So far as physically coming in, it's a lot better. Last month, it's been better than it was two months ago."

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