BOSTON -- As Torii Hunter said, it's not even the playoffs yet.
Not even the playoffs yet, and we're already asking the questions about the Angels that we usually ask in October. Already asking why this team that finds a way to win 95 games or so every season keeps finding ways to lose when it counts.
Asking why this team that we've heard so much about came East this week for three games so far against the Yankees and Red Sox, played three very tight games with all kinds of tough situations ...
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| Mike Scioscia's Angels are playing baffling baseball lately, but the club believes it can still beat anyone. (AP) |
In a clubhouse where most seemed concerned about the questionable umpiring ("What was the count on [Nick] Green, 3-4?" manager Mike Scioscia asked), Hunter stood up and questioned his own team.
Good for him. This is the time to do it.
As he said, it's not even the playoffs yet.
Maybe it'll turn out the Angels aren't good enough to beat the Red Sox. Maybe they'll beat the Red Sox and it'll turn out that they're not good enough to beat the Yankees.
But after two Octobers of frustrating first-round exits against Boston, and after three days of frustrating and uncharacteristic lapses against the Yankees and then the Sox, the question after Wednesday's 9-8 loss wasn't really whether the Angels are good enough.
It's whether they're tough enough.
"Sick talent," Hunter said, describing his team. "Sick talent. I love this team. But to win, we've got to show nuts."
Scioscia would never put it the same way, certainly not in public. But the Angels manager, one of the very best in the game, also believes this team is good enough to beat anyone.
Tuesday, Scioscia said this Angels offense is the best he's had since the 2002 team that won the World Series. And the numbers back him up.
He also said that the Angels rotation is the deepest he's ever had. Ace John Lackey, an Angel since 2002, backed him up.
"Absolutely," he said. "This is definitely the best we've had."
But Tuesday, after the Angels messed up back-to-back bunt defenses and lost 4-1, Lackey challenged the offense to produce more.
Wednesday, Hunter challenged the whole team to play like champions.
"This is not even the playoffs," he said. "But if you do this in the regular season, what's going to happen in the playoffs?"
Are these games more important, someone asked, because the Angels are headed for another first-round collision with the Red Sox?
"It's not more important," Hunter said. "That's where a lot of players on the team are getting it wrong. It's not more important. You just play the game like you've been playing the whole season. Play every team the same way. This [Red Sox] team is not more important than the Tampa Bay Rays, the Seattle Mariners.
"You play to win. You play the game. You have fun. You do what you do. You don't change anything because it's the Red Sox or the Yankees. If you make a mistake, brush it off. If you play nervous, you're going to make a mistake.
"Show some nuts."
Maybe the Angels make that their rallying cry. Maybe somehow that replaces the Rally Monkey (although in Disney-fied Orange County, probably not).
Or maybe a few of the younger Angels simply take Hunter's words to heart, and this team finds a way to turn its huge talent into huge October success.
Scioscia's Angels won it all in 2002, we know that. But only Lackey and Chone Figgins remain from that team. This is a different Angels team, one that has to prove itself next month.
"Our guys meet challenges very well," Scioscia said. "Our expectations are to see a team play to its capabilities down the stretch."
Their expectations are that they can compete with anyone.
"We feel that we can," Scioscia said.
They've lost three playoff series to the Red Sox. They've lost three games this week to the Yankees and Red Sox.
For three days against the best of the East, the Angels haven't looked like the (regular-season) championship team that they are.
It could be just a bad three-day stretch. Every team has them.
Or it could be that they're getting ready for October -- for October of 2007, October of 2008, and not October of 2002.
"I hope it's not because of what I'm thinking," Hunter said.
Either that, or he hopes that because he said what he's thinking, the Angels can address the issue before it's too late.
It's not too late yet. It's not even the playoffs yet.
