Stayin' Alive

After setting a franchise record this year with 100 regular season wins, the Angels were in jeopardy of making their second straight first-round exit from the postseason tonight by being swept by the Red Sox after dropping the first two games at home.

Mike Napoli apparently had other ideas, hitting two home runs and then scoring the winning run in the 12th inning as the Angels managed a 5-4 win in Game 3 at Fenway Park. Devoted Wife was on the edge of the bed for the last two innings (she retired to the bedroom once the game passed the tenth inning), yelling at Torii Hunter not to drop a fly ball, reminding Garret Anderson not to strike out looking and generally pleading with any of the Angels' hitters to forget about singles and just "GO YARD!" Guess somewhere along the way this season as I watched part of nearly every Angels' game (hey, on fast speed playback on the DVR you can see just the plays that matter) Devoted Wife got a real bug for the Angels.

My attempts at teaching Kate to yell "Boo-yah!" when an Angel hits a homer are hopefully also having some effect, but we have yet to hear anything that sounds like "Boo-yah." But Devoted Wife and I thought this morning when Kate couldn't get the door to the patio opened that she yelled "Dang it!" Actually, we know that's exactly what she said. We're just not sure she meant to. But it was pretty funny.

Anyway, let's hope that the Angels can get it together and win this series now that they've broken their postseason losing streak to Boston. I hate losing to Boston. The first time I splurged for playoff baseball tickets I went to a division series game against the Red Sox at Angel stadium. The Red Sox fans in our section were outnumbered by us Angel fans by about 7 to 1, but they were as loud as any fans I've ever heard. And because the Angels stunk it up that day and lost, those Sox fans got louder and louder as the game went on.

Wouldn't you know it, my photo on this blog is me in a BoSox t-shirt. Devoted Wife got it for me a few years ago when she went to visit her sister in Boston. But the only time I cheer for Boston is when they play the Yankees. I may need to ceremonially dispose of the offending t-shirt before Game 4.