Ya better damned well believe it. Even your own sportswriters are running scared:
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As most every Red Sox follower is certain to point out in the next 24-36 hours, there are more than just five months difference between April and October; the games now are entirely different. The Angels had home field advantage against the Red Sox in 2004 only to be unceremoniously swept from the first round of the playoffs in three lopsided games. Last year, the series opened in Boston and the Angels similarly were blown off the field.
In such cases, history is a convenient crutch, though we all know the truth:
Those games mean nothing now. The Los Angeles lineups encountered by the Sox in 2004 and 2007 were quite different from the one the Sox will encounter now, and not solely because of Teixeira's arrival. Torii Hunter has since joined these Angels, arriving as a free agent in the offseason. Garret Anderson is healthy this year (unlike last) and someone like Jose Guillen has not been suspended (as he was in 2004), which means that Red Sox pitchers are going to have a far more difficult time pitching to the Angels in 2008 than they did in either '04 or '07.
Please,
don't rely on history as a factor in this series.
Of all people, Boston fans should know better. If the Red Sox win Game 1 and doubts start creeping into the heads of Angels players, it has a great deal more to do with mental toughness (or lack thereof) than it does with anything that took place on the field last year or in '04.
Relative to '04 and '07,
Red Sox pitchers are going to have their hands full in this series because the Angels can score in more ways now. Since joining the Angels,
Teixeira has batted .358 with 13 home runs, 43 RBIs, 39 runs scored and 32 walks (against just 23 strikeouts) in 54 games; he has slugged .632 and has an OPS of 1.081. During that same period of time, Garret Anderson has been all but reborn, batting .335. (He went 8 for 10 in his first two games with Teixeira in the lineup.) Meanwhile, Vladimir Guerrero went from batting .284 and slugging .478 (before Teixeira) to hitting .345 and slugging .614 (after Teixeira).=================================================================================
It's a very different team than the one you faced even last year, toots. Fly that 2008 Wild Card banner with pride. It's the only one you're going to get.
