“I was just trying to help my boys out, get ’em going,’’ Hunter said.
Hunter is also the one who said Tuesday that he didn’t want to talk about last year, or any year other than this year. It didn’t matter what happened between these teams in 2004, 2007 or 2008, and it surely didn’t matter what happened in 1986. What mattered, he said, was that the Angels were a new and improved team and they would demonstrate just how good they are in this series.
A Game 1 victory is helpful, but by no means definitive. The Red Sox were not humiliated. They were just beaten. John Lackey outpitched Jon Lester. Hunter had the one hit in the game that really mattered. And that was that.
Or was it? One of the recurrent themes we’ve been hearing these past few days is just how much of an effect Bobby Abreu has had on the Angels’ lineup. His rare combination of patience and selective aggressiveness has been studied by the rest of them. That’s what they all say. Meanwhile, he walked four times last night and the third was just ahead of Hunter’s home run. It’s something to think about.
Lester was a good pitcher through four innings, but in order to come out with a W he was going to have to be a very good pitcher for a lot longer than that, for this was Lackey’s night. Angels manager Mike Scioscia seems to have unbounded faith in the 6-foot-6-inch righthander, and his confidence was rewarded when Lackey showed up with his A game on the right night, limiting the Sox to four hits in 7 1/3 innings.
“Lot of life on his fastball,’’ said Sox manager Terry Francona. “Threw enough breaking balls, we had to respect that, and he was able to locate the fastball again with two different directions. He was good. He was real good.’’
Lackey was first presented to the American public seven years ago when circumstances dictated that he get the ball for a Game 7 World Series start against the San Francisco Giants. He pitched without fear, and that set him off on what has been a solid B-student career in which he has had at least 10 wins in each of the last seven seasons. He’s not often a Cy Young threat, but he is reliable.
