Old Catcher Calls Another Good Game

The man responsible for another improbable Angel party was, as always, the last one to join it.

Shoulders hunched, head down, his large frame draped in a wrinkled red jacket, Mike Scioscia climbed on to the field Tuesday with all the pomp of a guy climbing out of his car.

He tapped his players with his giant hands. He greeted them with his tight smile.

He said little. They heard plenty.

“After all this time, he doesn’t have to say anything,” said Darin Erstad. “Everything around here comes from him.”

Everything from the stoic Angel culture to the daring Angel baseball to, on Tuesday, a stolen Angel victory, 3-2 over the stunned Chicago White Sox in the opener of the American League championship series.

Yeah, this one belonged to the old catcher.

The White Sox were the rested team playing in the friendly U.S. Cellular Field, yet looked as frazzled as their chirping manager, Ozzie Guillen.

The Angels, running hard into wells and second basemen, looked like Scioscia.

The White Sox were the team with the hotter hitters, yet they tried foolish bunts and silly steal attempts and played as erratic as the sunflower-seed-tossing Guillen.

The Angels, using the brains as well as their bats, played like Scioscia.

“The man knows what he is doing,” Erstad said, and it showed from the early-morning moment they arrived in town.

That the Angels played hard without complaint despite this being their third playoff game in three days while traveling 4,200 miles?

The old catcher doesn’t allow it.

Although Scioscia said during the pregame interview session that he thought this game should have been moved to Wednesday, he refused to use it as an excuse.

Said Scioscia: “If they scheduled a game for 1 in the morning, we’re going to show up and play.”

Said Erstad: “We don’t complain, because Scioscia never complains.”

That the Angels took a 2-0 lead after a hit-and-run play followed by a sacrifice bunt ... in the third inning?

The old catcher called it.

“That’s Mike, that’s what he does, when he thinks we might have trouble scoring runs, he gets us moving early,” said Adam Kennedy.

And moving hard, as Orlando Cabrera blew out Tadahito Iguchi at second base during the rally, breaking up a potential double play.

“That’s sort of the deal around here, that’s how you play,” said Kennedy.

That the Angels stunned the important White Sox running game by throwing out their first attempted base stealer on a pitchout?

Scioscia again.

Using input from advance scout Brad Sloan, the Angels outsmarted the other guys on a pitchout for the second time this postseason.

“That’s just not something Scioscia does tonight, or does this year,” said catcher Bengie Molina. “That’s something he’s done around here for six years.”

Scioscia ended the night, appropriately, with his chin out and his grip tight. Sometimes this gets him into trouble but not on this night.

Remember during the 2002 playoffs, when he caused a firestorm by leaving closer Troy Percival in the bullpen during an eighth-inning jam in New York, leading to an Angel loss?

This time he did it again, leaving Frankie Rodriguez in the bullpen with two out in the eighth inning, Jermaine Dye on first base and mighty Paul Konerko at the plate.

He trusted Scot Shields even though Shields had struggled two nights earlier. The trust was rewarded when Shields won a six-pitch battle with Konerko, fooling him into a fly out to end the inning.

“That was huge for me,” said Shields.

During that at-bat, Molina ran to the mound to talk strategy that Shields said was vital to his victory.

Yep, that was Scioscia, too.

“The fact that my manager has been a great catcher, that helps us out in everything,” said Molina.

Scioscia, of course, agrees with little of this.

“I don’t know if a manager and his staff can ever help someone win a game, but I do know that if they’re not prepared, they can help their team lose a game it should win,” Scioscia said. “If you’re not well-prepared, you will pay the price.”

But what about creating the culture that allows the team to survive situations like this?

“I’d like to think that my guys would have the same mind-set no matter who they played for,” he said.

But, then, why do the New York Yankees complain about travel and the Chicago White Sox complain about lack of respect and the Angels never gripe about anything?

“That’s just our clubhouse, it’s the guys in there,” Scioscia said. “I’m not the one making them play hard.”

If nothing else, he continues to make the Dodgers think hard.

Yeah, remember the Dodgers?

They currently are looking for a new manager, their third since Scioscia took over the Angels in 2000, their third since Scioscia was unceremoniously nudged through their doors.

He’ll never talk about the mistake they made.

He already believes he manages the most important team in Los Angeles. Thanks in part to him, he’s right.