"There's something a little distasteful about me sitting right here acting like I'm Connie Mack, Casey Stengel and Tony Larussa all rolled into one the day after the fact. That said, nobody is more relieved today than Angels manager Mike Scioscia. That cat is seriously off the hook after nearly managing his team right out of the ALCS last night. Well, it does take some unbelievable gall for me to second guess a guy who's forgotten more baseball than I will ever know. Considering that's what they pay me to do I'm just going to go ahead and do it. Besides, Scioscia has not forgotten more baseball than John Lackey will ever know, and I know that Lackey agrees with me.  

How do you hook him with a 4 run lead when he had just gotten Damon to fly out to right for the second out of the inning? Look, if you want to pull him after he walked Posada and Jeter great, but if you leave him in to get Damon (and he does) how do you not let him work his way out of that jam and get the last out, especially since he was set to face a struggling Texas. He's your horse, he dominated for the first 6 innings and he was right- that was HIS game.

Now, not only are you going to have to replace Lackey next year when he leaves, you almost had to replace the entire ballpark after Darren Oliver dragged his gas can to the bump, soaked the infield with gasoline, starting flicking lit finger tips all around and attempted to burn that joint to the ground. Texas, the guy that Scioscia "Just had to turn around" cleared the bases on the very first pitch, Oliver then intentionally walks AROD, gave up the game tying knock to Madsui and then passed his gas can to Jepsen who tried to burn down the rest of the city allowing that two run triple to Cano.

Luckily the rally monkey then came out, the Angels came back and the manager was off the hook. The only person happier than Scioscia was the Phillies manager, because if the Angels can steal game 6 and force Sabathia to pitch again then every Philly fan will probably be climbing greasy lamp posts and dodging roman candle fire once again."

I actually supported Mike Scioscia's decision to Remove John Lackey at the time he was removed from the game, although I'll admit to cursing him a few moments later. However, here is why I think Scioscia made that move and why I originally agreed with the move.

1. The tying Yankees runner is at the plate and he is a slugger - Mark Teixeira.

2. In his first two at bats it seemed Tex's bat had woken up. He hit a single in his first at bat and his second was a hard shot to deep left field. It appeared Tex was getting comfortable batting from the left side and I think Scioscia wanted to throw off Tex's mojo.

3. Tex's history against Lackey - .388 average.

4. Scioscia wanted to take away Tex's power by putting in a lefty. Tex (a switch hitter) hit only 9 homers batting on the right side but had 30 batting on the left. Putting in Darren Oliver would force Tex to his weak side thus limiting the damage to a single or double.

5. Oliver has been lights out in the post season for the Angels, pitching 6 shutout innings.

6. Lackey (especially when he was a rookie) was not effective when he lost his cool. They had to keep on him about focusing on the batter and not worrying about any bad calls etc. He clearly lost his temper at the ump so his composure and control was shaky at best. His pace and rhythm was all messed up too. He just didn't look like the calm, cool, in control Lackey anymore.

7. With 100% rain forecast for Saturday in New York, Scioscia may have wanted to save his arm as much as possible for a possible Game 7 appearance.

Bottom line is that I think Scioscia felt Oliver could get an out then they'd have just 6 more outs to game 6. And the whole bullpen was available.

So honestly, did you agree with the decision at the moment he took him out? It's easy to Monday morning quarterback. It was a tough call but the main thing on my mind was "Dude, we cannot allow a home run here!"

I was curious why the Angels thought Swisher did not tag up? I wondered if the Angels scouted that umpire and discovered he doesn't pay attention and tried to fool him? I've seen that happen before and if so that's a slick move. The broadcast only showed Torii Hunter running in from center field complaining. Anybody at the park notice if other Angels complained as well, or was it just Torii? 

Also, I thought Torii's deception play (pretending he was going to catch the ball) on the double in the left field gap which kept Posada on 2nd was slick as well. Posada looked like such an idiot.