Angels channel Red Sox in falling to Yankees

October 26, 10:28 AMBoston Baseball ExaminerSteve Weissman

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The New York Yankees advanced to the World Series last night by defeating the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) by a score of 5-3, and it was a game that Boston Red Sox fans likely found oddly familiar.

Though the Gothamites have a lineup that is strong and deep, they didn’t beat the Anaheimians senseless with long ball after long ball. And though they have a starting pitcher with a record number of post-season wins and a bullpen with one of the game’s most promising young arms, they didn’t stifle their opposing hitters.

Instead, the Yankees simply produced a couple more timely hits and created a few more timely outs than the Angels did, resulting in a game that never felt out of reach but wasn’t quite winnable either.

In other words, it was like too many Red Sox games in 2009, wherein the team exhibited resilience, grittiness, and heart, but came up short when it mattered.

This Angels club deserves credit for overcoming early-season tragedy and posting the second-most wins in baseball, for busting their own quasi-curse in dispatching the Sox in the ALDS, and for forcing a Game 6 in the ALCS. But like the Red Sox, they are now destined for breakup, as a number of their cornerstone players (Bobby Abreu, Chone Figgins, Vladimir Guerrero, John Lackey) are ticketed for free agency, and not all of them will return.

Whether or not the Sox lose their share of high-profile players whose contracts either are up or are up for renewal (among them Rocco Baldelli, Jason Bay, Alex Gonzalez, Victor Martinez, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield), dare we imagine a versatile sparkplug like Figgins, an erstwhile ace like Lackey, and/or a veteran presence like Abreu in Boston garb in 2010? Strange if the parallels were to continue …