ANAHEIM – This was simply a case of Jason being Jason.
Jason Bay, a notorious mistake hitter, drilled the fattest of John Lackey’s fastballs deep over the left-field fence for a two-out, two-run home run in the sixth inning last night to catapult the Red Sox to a 4-1 win over the blue Angels at Angel Stadium. Boston has now won 10 consecutive playoff victories over the AL West champs.
That blast erased a 1-0 Angels’ lead and was all that miracle man Jon Lester and the Red Sox bullpen needed. The young left-hander was masterful as the over-anxious Angels made his job easier by offering at pitches out of the strike zone.
With Bay doing his Manny Ramirez imitation Boston takes a 1-0 lead in the series, the perfect start for the defending World Champs. Ramirez did hit his major league leading 25th postseason home run in the Dodgers’ 7-2 win over the Cubs earlier in the day.
This was Bay’s first October home run, his first postseason hit and it came after he looked terrible in his first two at-bats striking out on breaking balls. He crushed the grooved fastball, though, and the 44,996 fans sat in stunned silence as Bay tossed his bat aside and raced around the bases.
“I’m glad I didn’t miss it,” Bay said of the pitch.
Bay said he doesn’t look at the situation as replacing Ramirez.
“I just figured Boston needed a left fielder and that guy was me,” he said. “They’re not asking me to do more than what I can do.”
The ex-Mets farmhand was acquired from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline when the Red Sox decided they had had enough of Ramirez.
The Red Sox were 0-for-11 with runners on base until Bay’s home run. They added two insurance runs in the ninth.
On Tuesday, Angels center fielder Torii Hunter said the Red Sox would miss Ramirez, but added with caution in his voice, “Don’t make a mistake to Jason Bay.”
Lackey made a big one and now the Angels are in a big hole.
“I think Manny and David Ortiz were the best 1-2 I think I’ve seen in my career as a player and also on this side, managing,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said before the game. “But you have to understand that that’s a talented team over there and it wasn’t a situation where if you just shut down Manny or you take Manny out of the lineup that you were going to contain an offense. And I think they’ve shown that.
“They’ve retooled during the season,” Scioscia said. “They’re as dangerous as they’ve ever been on the offensive side.”
Especially when you throw a fastball up to a hitter like Bay, who is sitting dead red.
The Angels are a bunch of free swingers and that worked to Lester’s advantage when with one out in the first, Garret Anderson and Mark Teixeira laced back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second.
That brought Vladamir Guerrero and his Mr. May .183 postseason batting average to the plate. Guerrero did exactly the wrong thing, swinging at a first-pitch fastball that was up and out of the zone and popped to right. After a walk to Torii Hunter loaded the bases, Howie Kendrick grounded to third to end the threat.
Guerrero made a base-running blunder in the eighth; getting thrown out at third after Hunter dropped a pop single just beyond first baseman Kevin Youkilis’ reach. Youkilis bounced up and threw out Guerrero by 10 feet.
In the third, Hunter lashed a two-out RBI single to put the Angels up, 1-0. Three innings later Bay turned the game upside down with his first postseason blast and the Red Sox were on their way to another October victory.
