Angels Hardly Defensive When It Counts

Aligning his infield for Game 1 of the division series with the Boston Red Sox, Mike Scioscia put the emphasis on D.

What he got instead was a game-turning E, and other indiscretions that do not appear in the box score.

The Angels were blown out by the Red Sox, 9-3, after self destructing early, never a good idea when Curt Schilling is on the mound for the other team.

Third baseman Chone Figgins, so valuable at so many positions during the Angels’ injury-marred summer, made the pivotal defensive mistakes as Boston vaulted to an 8-0 lead that put Pedro Martinez in position to push the Angels to a playoff precipice tonight.

That’s how quickly it can happen in a best-of-five series, and there was some thought that the Angels never got off the managerial drawing board in the opener.

Did the first error belong to Scioscia, who preaches aggressiveness but came up a pacifist for Game 1, setting a defensive tone that dissolved quickly?

Well, with second baseman Adam Kennedy unavailable and third baseman Troy Glaus limited to being the designated hitter (which he did with a bang), Scioscia continued to have only two options.

He could go as he did, looking for reliable defense from Figgins at third and the light-hitting Alfredo Amezaga at second, or he could pursue some long ball percussion by starting Dallas McPherson at third and Figgins at second.

With McPherson a work in progress at third, Scioscia cited Boston’s right-handed heavy lineup against left-hander Jarrod Washburn and said:

“We wanted the defensive presence because the charts suggested there would be more action at third, and Figgins has been outstanding there.

“We knew that to beat a very good pitcher we would have to play good defense and make all of the plays.

“Unfortunately, we only made some of them, and when you give extra outs to a club as stacked as the Red Sox are offensively, it’s tough to overcome.”

The Red Sox were credited with five unearned runs, and it could have been six on a day when it was easy to believe that Angel Stadium must have been built on an Indian burial site.

The first ghosts appeared in the first inning.

Washburn had two outs when Manny Ramirez hit a two-hop grounder down the third base line. Figgins seemed to have time to get in front of it. Instead, he tried to backhand it and the ball hopped off his glove and down the line for what was generously ruled a double. David Ortiz followed with a broken-bat, seeing-eye grounder that eluded first baseman Darin Erstad’s dive and something of a stumbling pursuit by Amezaga for a run-scoring single and 1-0 lead.

It was 3-0 with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth when Johnny Damon hit a ground ball to Figgins, which he double clutched before throwing wildly to the plate, allowing two runs to score and extending a seven-run inning capped by Ramirez’s three-run homer.

Could Figgins have converted a third-to-first or second-to-first double play on the ground ball by Damon?

“No way,” the versatile Figgins said. “Damon runs too well. I would do it the same way the next time. The ball took a bad hop and backed me up. I double clutched because the runner [Jason Varitek, coming home from third] was inside the base lane and I had try and throw over him. The angle wasn’t there and I made a bad throw. I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

“I mean, it’s a different story if I was tentative, but I was playing aggressively and that’s my game so I have no reason to second guess myself. It’s like the ball Ramirez hit in the first inning. It had a lot of topspin and simply bounced over my glove. I was there, in position, but what can you do?”

Considering that Washburn wasn’t at his best and that Schilling gave up only one run until the seventh, this might have been a game the Angels weren’t going to win anyway, but the two fielding lapses by Figgins and the second-inning failure of Jeff DaVanon to advance the runner after a leadoff double by Troy Glaus are the kind of fundamental breakdowns that usually lead to elimination in October.

Now, against Martinez tonight, the Angels must bank on Bartolo Colon proving again he is worth all those trips to the bank.

With Trot Nixon, another left-handed hitter, moving into the Boston lineup against right-hander Colon -- and possibly a little less action at third and a little less pressure with the opener out of the way -- Scioscia will start McPherson, who was 0 for 3 after entering Game 1 as a pinch-hitter, and move Figgins to second.

The latter is acknowledged to be the best of the seven positions Figgins has played this year.

“He’s kept our team together all year,” pitcher Scot Shields said in dismissing any concern over Figgins’ ability to bounce back from Game 1. “What happened today just happened. If it wasn’t for him, there’s no way we’d be playing in this series.”

Washburn agreed.

“It doesn’t matter how you lose,” he said. “There were bad plays, bad pitches, and we lost. You forget it and move on. We have confidence in Chone, confidence in ourselves. He’ll be fine.”

And in the lineup again tonight. How many choices does the manager really have?