ANAHEIM, Calif. -- This is not the way it was supposed to start for the Los Angeles Angels of Depressed, Misfiring and Rally Monkeyed-Out Anaheim.
Not this October.
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| Vladimir Guerrero's gaffe short-circuits a rally and helps put the Angels in an all-too-familiar hole. (US Presswire) |
Um, make that, not Vladimir Guerrero's Octobers.
Chalk up one more huge swing-and-miss for October Vladdy. That it came on the basepaths in Boston's 4-1 victory against the Angels in Game 1 of this divisional series was only a brush stroke, not the whole portrait.
Guerrero, standing on first base, badly misread Torii Hunter's looping single in the eighth inning with one out and the Angels trailing 2-1, nearly stopped before he even reached second base ... and then, in a scene nearly as gruesome as found in any slasher movie, decided to set sail for third.
He was out by ... oh, 10 Mississippis.
"I saw the ball drop and I thought it was further than it was," Guerrero said through translator Jose Mota, a Spanish-language broadcaster for the Angels. "I tried to make it to third base and I couldn't do it. It wasn't there."
Angels third-base coach Dino Ebel was frantically extending both arms heavenward in the universal "Stop! Stop! Oh my goodness, please STOP!" sign.
"I did not have a chance to look at the third-base coach," Guerrero said. "If I had seen it, I would have stopped."
Over on third, Boston's Mike Lowell showed incredible restraint in opting not to go make himself a sandwich as a way of killing time after fielding first baseman Kevin Youklis' throw while awaiting Guerrero's arrival.
"It was kind of weird," Lowell said. "I was hoping (Youklis) would catch the ball. Then I saw Vladdy take off, and I didn’t think he'd go to third. I was standing there."
With time not only to have a pizza delivered, but to eat it before making the tag.
