It was too great a game with too many juicy subplots for one day. Here are just a few Game 5 postmortems:
--SCIOSCIA'S MOVES -- Considering the wails of anger and stream of comments and e-mails, Mike Scioscia must be very happy the Angels won. What would it have been like if those controversial moves had led to a loss and the end of the team's season? One can only imagine. If you've followed Scioscia, though, you couldn't have been surprised at either of his decisions. He is a by-the-book manager who believes in the percentages. He knew Mark Teixeira was a better hitter left-handed than right-handed, and that's the biggest reason he pulled John Lackey. As for taking out Jered Weaver and calling in Brian Fuentes, that should have come as no shock, either. Fuentes is his closer, it's the ninth inning and his team is one run up, and that's who he goes with. He's done it all season long. No way he was about to change now, no matter how scary it was to watch.
--THE CALL THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING -- In the maze of terrible calls, the one by home plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth, calling an obvious strike three a ball to Jorge Posada on a 3-2 count in the seventh inning, changed the tenor of not only that inning, but the entire game. If the call is made right, Lackey probably coasts through that inning and goes into the eighth with his shutout intact.
-- MATHIS HAS TO START NOW, RIGHT? Nobody has hit better in the postseason than catcher Jeff Mathis (6-for-10, .600 average with four doubles), and you'd think it would be a slam dunk that he start whatever games are left, at least in this series. But Mike Napoli has started more games Joe Saunders has pitched, and Scioscia is a creature of habit, as we all know. Still, Mathis is clearly the better defensive catcher and the way he's hitting, you have to keep him in there, don't you? Angels fans sure hope so.
-- CALL ME HALF-WITT -- Yes, I know it was Mike Witt, not Bobby as I somehow wrote in one of my Thursday night blogs, who pitched in that infamous Game 5 in 1986. I should know. I was there. But as the umpires have continued to demonstrate in this postseason, we all make mistakes. I'm honored so many readers took the time to point it out to me, though. Keep it up, folks. Makes us stay on our toes.
-- GOING OUT IN STYLE -- It also must be mentioned that Vlad Guerrero is playing out the final days of his Angels career in style. He is not driving the ball like he once did, but he continues to deliver clutch hits, like the one that tied the score at 6 Thursday night. Scioscia didn't listen when a lot of us called for Guerrero to be moved out of the cleanup spot. Guess the manager knew what he was doing.
-- IN JOE'S HANDS -- Game 6 in New York, if the rain gods cooperate Saturday night, will be in good hands for the Angels. Saunders might not be the most overpowering pitcher, but his won-loss percentage is startling. Quietly, he has gone 48-22 lifetime in the majors, which figures out to a .686 winning percentage. Whitey Ford, the former Yankee Hall of Famer, has the best winning percentage of all time at .690. When you realize Saunders lost some games in the month or so he struggled with an injured shoulder, his numbers are even more impressive. I like his chances in Game 6 against Andy Pettitte. A potential Game 7 against CC Sabathia? That's something different altogether.
--Steve Bisheff