Yankees and Angels Get Ready for the Rain

Yankees and Angels Get Ready for the Rain


There are starting pitchers who scowl on the days they pitch, oblivious to the world around them, focused only on scouting reports and the music pumping through their headphones. Then there is C. C. Sabathia, who will start the American League Championship Series opener against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday at Yankee Stadium. If the game is delayed by rain, Sabathia will not mind.
“I’m pretty relaxed, hanging out,” Sabathia said. “It just gives me a lot of time to play R.B.I.”
In R.B.I. Baseball, the 1980s video game that is popular in the Yankees’ clubhouse, Sabathia’s favorite player is Bert Blyleven of the 1987 Minnesota Twins. If he can channel the real Blyleven on the mound, the Yankees will be thrilled: Blyleven won twice in the A.L.C.S. that season to lead his team to the World Series.
The weather could be raw Friday, but it should not keep Sabathia from making the start. According to the Penn State Department of Meteorology, there will be light showers during the game and temperatures in the low to mid-40s, with a breeze of 10 to 15 miles an hour that will make it feel colder. Saturday’s forecast is more threatening: heavier rain and a stronger wind.
“This is Yankee weather,” catcher Jorge Posada said. “We’ve been playing like this all year. It seems like every time we come home, it’s been raining. We’ll deal with it and they’ll have to deal with it, too.”
In theory, mushy basepaths could hinder the Angels’ celebrated running game, but the Yankees cannot count on that. In Game 5 of last year’s World Series, with rain engulfing Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Tampa Bay’s B. J. Upton managed to steal second and score on a single to left field, tying the game just before it was suspended.
For the Angels, the running game starts with the leadoff man Chone Figgins, who led the league in walks, with 101, and had 42 stolen bases. His teammates Erick Aybar, Maicer Izturis and Bobby Abreu also like to run, making things tougher for Sabathia.
“If we get on, we’re going to try to create some havoc,” Figgins said. “But he’s one of the best pitchers in the league. That’s not always a simple thing to do. It’s a tough battle. He knows we’re trying to get on base and we know he’s going to try to keep us off base. It’s a toss-up what’s going to happen.”
Sabathia lost twice to the Angels this season. A double steal was a factor in a run in his first loss, but otherwise he gave up no stolen bases. Sabathia learned a slide-step delivery from Terry Mulholland, his teammate with the Cleveland Indians, and effectively controls the running game.
“He’s got a slide step, and he pays really good attention,” Posada said. “So he’s very, very good.”
The Yankees actually had a better success rate on steals than the Angels this season. But the threat of running — and their skill at churning for extra bases — might be the Angels’ best weapon. They attempted so many steals that they could distract a pitcher, increasing the chance of a mistake to a power hitter like Kendry Morales, Torii Hunter or Vladimir Guerrero.
“They’ve got great balance to their lineup, so the biggest thing for me is just try to keep those guys off the bases: Figgins and Izturis and Aybar,” Sabathia said. “Try to concentrate on Vlady and make good pitches to Torii and those guys. They’ve gotten the best of me so far in my career, but I look to go out and just try to pound the strike zone, command both sides of the plate and see what happens.”
Sabathia is 5-7 with a 4.72 earned run average against the Angels in his career. Howie Kendrick is 8 for 12 against him, and Hunter is 20 for 68 (.294) with three homers. He said the Angels shortened their swings against Sabathia, an effective tactic against a power pitcher.
That is clearly the Angels’ image: they slap, they scrap, they scamper. Yankees Manager Joe Girardi compared them Thursday to the St. Louis Cardinals of the mid-1980s featuring Vince Coleman and Willie McGee. Mike Scioscia, the Angels’ manager, had a different view, and that was why he was not worried about sloppy weather slowing his team.
“I don’t think our offense was as dependent on what we did on the basepaths this year as it had been in previous years for us to reach our goals,” Scioscia said. “Our batter’s-box offense this year was much better. Our situational hitting was much better. We didn’t drive the ball as well as the Yankees did, but we certainly scored on par with them. So if it slows down our running game, I think we have some things that we can still do.”
However they do it, the Angels usually present matchup problems for the Yankees. Including the postseason, the Angels are 56-44 against the Yankees since Scioscia took over as manager in 2000.
Yet the Yankees won 3 of 4 in September from the Angels, who just swept the Red Sox, the team that had knocked them from the playoffs in three of the previous five seasons. History is instructive, but it might be meaningless.
“Obviously, we struggled against Boston and here we are,” said John Lackey, who starts for the Angels in Game 1. “So that doesn’t really matter right now. We have to continue to play well, because they’re a great team.”
The series has the makings of compelling baseball theater. The only question now is when the weather will let it happen.