BOSTON // It was a scene the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have become all too familiar with, and it did not make for pleasant viewing. On Wednesday night the Boston Red Sox celebrated a wild and wacky 9-8 walk-off victory over the Angels with another group hug in the middle of the Fenway Park field, which has become a burial ground for the Angels' pennant hopes.
The Red Sox clinched division series wins over the Angels in similar fashion in 2004 and 2008, and the fact that this win came after what the Angels felt were two blown calls by the umpires in a fateful ninth inning merely added to their frustration. The struggles of the Los Angeles side's closer Brian Fuentes - who had a loss and a blown save in his previous four outings - continued as the left-hander walked the pinch-hitter Nick Green to force in the tying run before giving up Alex Gonzalez's game-winning single.
Just as big a concern for the Angels is their sloppy play the last three nights against a Red Sox team they probably will play again in the division series and a New York Yankees club that could be lurking in the American League Championship Series. "I'm [ticked] off. You can see it on my face. You don't even have to talk to me," said the centre fielder Torii Hunter. "I know this is not a play-off game, but if you do this during the regular season, it could happen during the play-offs."
The Angels, who maintained their six-game AL West lead over the slumping Texas Rangers, seemed to wilt under the pressure of play-off atmosphere baseball, committing errors that were costly in all three games. They had a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning on Wednesday night, but the shortstop Erick Aybar dropped a throw from the second baseman Howie Kendrick on Mike Lowell's fielder's choice grounder, an error that paved the way for three unearned runs in Boston's five-run inning.
Kendrick had trouble getting the ball out of his glove on David Ortiz's potential double-play grounder, and the Angels had to settle for a force out. Gonzalez capped the rally with a two-out, two-run single. "It became a five-out inning. You can't afford to make mistakes against such a good team," said the manager Mike Scioscia. Elsewhere, the Minnesota Twins' 7-3 win over the Cleveland Indians took their winning streak to four games and kept them in good shape for the arrival of Detroit for an American League Central showdown. The Tigers beat Kansas City 4-3.
In the East, the New York Yankees had a struggle before beating Toronto 5-4 while the Baltimore Orioles had to wait for their 4-2 win at home to out-of-form Tampa Bay, because of a mid-match rain delay of almost two hours. Seattle beat the Chicago White Sox 4-1 and Oakland upset Texas 4-0. The Colorado Rockies suffered a late collapse before just managing to hold off the surging San Francisco Giants 4-3, the win giving them some breathing room in the National League wild card race.
Rockies closer Rafael Betancourt was required to salvage a dangerous situation in the ninth inning, coming on to record the final three outs after the Giants had scored three times to reduce the deficit to a single run. By taking the final contest of the three-game set, Colorado (83-64) opened a three-and-a-half-game lead over the Giants (79-67) in the race for a play-off spot. "It was a big win, but at the same time if we dropped this game there was no reason to be down on ourselves," said the Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
"We've come a long way. What we've been through, to start out the season the way we did and still be in a play-off race is something special." The Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa picked up his 15th win of the season with a virtually flawless effort that saw the left-hander strike out nine and allow just three hits in eight innings. "This was the best performance of my life," said De La Rosa, who started the year 0-6. "Given the situation, it's what we needed."
In other games, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Pittsburgh 3-1, Florida overcame St Louis 5-2 and San Diego has a 6-5 victory over Arizona. Atlanta had to be patient for their 6-5 win at home to New York Mets, in a match which suffered a long rain delay and then went deep into the ninth inning before David Ross scored the decisive run. The Chicago Cubs lost 9-5 to Milwaukee, Philadelphia beat Washington 6-1 and Cincinnati enjoyed a 6-5 home victory against Houston.
* With agencies