You can't point to one guy in this win and say he was the reason why they won. It was an all-around effort. On both sides.
The Angels hung in there for a while, while Lackey did what he could to keep the Sox at bay, his fielders behind him weren't at the top of their game (save Texieria).
Varitek's tag on a squeeze play that would have put the Angels up a run in the 9th was both controversial and pivotal. Tek tagged Reggie Willits as he was retreating to third base and after he tagged him out, he stumbled and the ball popped loose when he hit the ground. It was made clear by MLB that the right call was made by Umpire Tim Welke who noted that it was not a case where the ground can cause a fumble.
"That's the NFL," said Steve Palermo, the Major League supervisor of umpires, after the game. "We don't have that in baseball. He had possession of the ball when he made the tag."
Tek certainly had possession of the ball, and Welke signaled Willits was out even before the ball popped out.
In the bottom of the 9th Jason Bay hit a ground rule double that bounced into the stands as Willits dove for it. Had the ball not hopped into the stands, there was a good shot that Bay could have ended the game with a walk-off inside the park HR.
But he didn't need to.
Jed Lowrie came up to the plate and lined it to the outfield and Bay rounded third with a head of steam, diving headfirst into home and slapping home before jumping up and being mobbed by his teammates.
The Angels were arguably the team to beat in all of MLB, and the Red Sox took their best shot. But now they head to Tampa for what will surely be a series that goes to 7 games and will have it all: solid pitching, good hitting, and great fielding, from both clubs.
This is why we love October.
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