Angels Try to Catch Fire Against a Lesser Light

They are on the ledge staring down at a 2-0 deficit in this best-of-five American League division series, knowing one loss to the Boston Red Sox will send them home for the winter, three games of playoff heartbreak probably obscuring all they accomplished during a 162-game grind.

But there’s a bright side for the Angels -- at least they won’t have to jump into the waiting arms of Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez as the series shifts to quirky Fenway Park for Game 3 today and Game 4, if necessary, Saturday.

If there’s a sliver of hope for the Angels as they take on a seemingly impossible task -- defeating an explosive team that went 55-26 at home and trying to become only the eighth team (43 before them have tried) to rebound from a 2-0 deficit to win a five-game playoff series -- it is this:

Right-hander Bronson Arroyo will start for the Red Sox today, and if the Angels can extend the series to Game 4, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield is scheduled to start for the Red Sox on Saturday.

Neither is named Schilling.

Neither is named Martinez.

And neither should strike any fear in the Angels, who pounded Arroyo for 11 runs -- nine earned -- and 14 hits in 8 1/3 innings in two starts this season and roughed up Wakefield for five runs and eight hits, including two homers, in four innings of an 8-3 win July 17. Wakefield is 7-9 with a 4.63 earned-run average in 23 career games against the Angels.

“This is desperation time for us,” Angel shortstop David Eckstein said. “We’ve got to find a way to win, we’ve got to get it done. If we win [today] it puts added pressure on them. That’s how the momentum starts to shift in a series.”

The Angels have been choppy all season, unable to gain much momentum because of injuries and inconsistent play, but it seemed there was always a flip side to their low points.

They were just as prone to losing three in a row as they were to winning three in a row by lopsided scores. Sometimes in the same week. And that unpredictability is what can make them dangerous in this series.

“It’s encouraging because we can disappear for two or three days and then come back like a ball of fire,” Angel first baseman Darin Erstad said. “We’re dealing with a different animal this year.”

Which one will show up in Fenway Park today? Will it be the Garret Anderson who had the game-winning hit in the AL West-clinching game in Oakland last Saturday or the one who is hitless in eight at-bats with two strikeouts against the Red Sox?

Will it be the Vladimir Guerrero who batted .463 with nine homers and 15 RBIs in his last 15 regular-season games or the one who went 0 for 5 in Game 1 against Boston?

Will it be the Chone Figgins whose proficient defense at several positions held the Angels together for much of the season or the one who has looked shaky in the field and unsure of himself at the plate against the Red Sox?

Will it be the intimidating bullpen that fastened down so many victories this season or the one that had three top relievers -- Scot Shields, Brendan Donnelly and Francisco Rodriguez -- dinged up in the first two games?

Will it be the team that was fundamentally sound and maximized scoring chances, or the one that botched two sacrifice bunt attempts in Game 2?

“We just have to play our game, and, honestly, we haven’t done that,” catcher Bengie Molina said. “We haven’t moved guys over, we haven’t gotten guys in, we haven’t played good defense. We don’t look so much at who’s pitching against us. It’s more how we play our game.”

The Angels like the guy pitching for them today. Though Kelvim Escobar’s record (11-12) looks mediocre, his 3.93 ERA is the lowest among Angel starters. With better run support, the right-hander could have won as many games as Bartolo Colon, who went 18-12 with a 5.01 ERA.

“You look at some of Bartolo’s numbers and say, how did he win 18 games?” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You look at Kelvim’s numbers, you shake your head and say, how did he not win 18 or 20 games? Kelvim has been the lead dog of our rotation.”

Escobar mixes his bulldog mentality with an inner calm -- sort of a controlled aggression -- that should help him cope with the pressures of Fenway, not the most hospitable place for opposing pitchers. He pitched well last Saturday in the Angels’ division-clinching win over the A’s.

“For some reason, I have always been a guy who gets excited but doesn’t feel pressure,” Escobar said. “Because when you put pressure on yourself, I think you try to do too much, and it never works out.”

If Escobar can quell an offense that had 23 hits and 17 runs in Games 1 and 2, and the Angels can pound Arroyo and win today, they’ll at least have a chance for an improbable comeback.

And don’t think the Red Sox don’t know that. Boston lost the first two games of the 2003 division series in Oakland and came back to defeat the A’s. And in 2001, Oakland won the first two games of a division series in New York and lost to the Yankees.

“It was great to get two games, two stressful games, but now we can’t let the Angels breathe,” Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon said. “They’re definitely a good club, and we can’t let them wake up.

“I was on that Oakland team that had the Yankees down, 2-0. We got home and it was like we were scared. ‘Oh no, we’re gonna knock off the champs.’ That’s why it’s important to finish this off.”