FanHouse Mike Scioscia

NEW YORK -- The lords of baseball don't realize it, probably because they're old and stubborn and semi-senile. But their showcase event, the World Series, never has seemed more irrelevant in American life. I say it even as the New York Yankees, a world-famous brand name with gaudy stars and Hollywood girlfriends, return for the first time in six years to play the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies in what should be a compelling matchup of monstrous talent and East Coast psychosis.

The problem? Look at the calendar, stupid. The Series is starting later than ever, on Oct. 28, and potentially could finish with a Game 7 in what very possibly would be a frigid, blustery Yankee Stadium on November the friggin' fi-fi-fi-fifth. That means the Boys of Summer are perilously close to becoming the Icecubes of Winter, which is not the smart way to determine a champion in a game of intellectual nuance and patient, incremental drama. Though so many of these postseason contests have been cool to watch, I've also found myself thinking at times, "Can we please finish all this?" instead of sitting back and enjoying the action.

NEW YORK -- The Angels will be haunted all season by their failure to do the little things correctly, such as not treating the baseball as if it were a ripe pumpkin. The Yankees, especially the unrivaled core four, played and then celebrated as if they had been there before, even if it has taken six long years for them to figure the way back.

Therein lies the difference between going home and booking a trip to the World Series, in two quick sentences. On a night when Andy Pettitte's cutter was nearly as biting as it was in 1996 when he pitched one of the greatest playoff games in Yankee history, the Angels tussled through more misplays in a series plagued with them. On a night when Mariano Rivera reached deep for a six-out save, the Angels strangled all opportunities to extend the American League Championship Series into a Game 7. They clumsily ran the bases, made some atrocious errors, stranded more runners. And the manager probably has a move or two he'd like to have back in the Yankees' 5-2 win that crushed the Angels' postseason and jump-started a New York-Philadelphia World Series.

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Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.

Looking Forward ...

Monday morning, the number was nine, as in the inning which might give the Angels trouble. Tuesday, it's three, as in the days of rest Yankees Game 4 starter CC Sabathia will have.

Sabathia, you will recall, did this sort of thing plenty last September as he propelled the Brewers to their first playoff appearance since 1982. He was terrific too, going 2-1 with an 0.83 ERA. But that was the NL in a pennant race. This is the AL in the League Championship Series.

NEW YORK -- Of course it would end this way, in such classic, expected fashion. What, you didn't have Jerry Hairston Jr. scoring the winning run for the Yankees in the bottom of the 13th inning, after the Angel infield completely lost its heads? Join the club with millions of other baseball fans who watched Saturday's American League Championship Series melt into Sunday morning, and still aren't sure how and why this astonishing Game 2 concluded as it did.

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There was a lot of talk about the amount of home runs hit over the right field fence in the new Yankee Stadium this season, and it seems that Angels manager Mike Scioscia has heard a great deal of it. He's shuffling his rotation from the order he used during the Division Series to get a lefty starter on the mound for Saturday's Game 2 of the ALCS.

Scioscia said Tuesday that the Angels would start either Scott Kazmir or Joe Saunders with Jered Weaver dropping back one game and starting the first game in Anaheim. The hope of neutralizing Yankees power heading toward the short porch is definitely the prime reason for the move, though there are other considerations that probably played into Scioscia's decision.

While we're not going to know who the New York Yankees will be facing until Tuesday night, we do know that the Boston Red Sox will be taking on the Los Angeles Angels in the ALDS. We also know who will be pitching for both teams as Angels manager Mike Scioscia announced on Sunday that his starting rotation will have John Lackey going in Game 1, to be followed by Jered Weaver in Game 2, Scott Kazmir in Game 3 and Joe Saunders in Game 4.

Terry Francona announced the Red Sox rotation for the series on Sunday as well. Jon Lester will take the ball in Game 1 to face Lackey, while Josh Beckett will start Game 2 followed by the young Clay Bucholz in Game 3. The question is, who will Boston's fourth starter be?

BOSTON -- The Angels left Fenway Park late Thursday night, after avoiding a sweep with a 4-3 victory.

They will be back in three weeks.

With 17 games to play, the Rangers are 6 1/2 games behind the Angels and six behind the Red Sox.

Which means unless Texas figures out a way to score 10 runs a game more than it has recently, or the Yankees blow a six-game lead for the first time in their history, or Detroit runs the table, the Angels and Red Sox will meet in the American League Division Series for the third straight season.

And that means flashbacks for the boys from Orange County.

BOSTON -- As far as Mike Scioscia is concerned, the Angels' late-inning relief situation isn't "unsettled." It is, however, fluid.

Scioscia explained Tuesday that hot rookie setup man Kevin Jepsen will continue to be used, at times, in the ninth inning as well as the eighth, but it sounds as if Scioscia still wants to use struggling closer Brian Fuentes to get the final out.

Just not always the final three.

"I think it's evolved into -- we're going to look at matchups if they're available," Scioscia said. "If there's some matchups we can take advantage of by rolling [Jepsen] over to the ninth inning, we'll look at it. If there aren't we have every confidence that Brian's going to go out there and get it done."

BALTIMORE -- These aren't George Bush's Angels.

Something big has changed in Anaheim over the past year, and while it certainly has nothing to do with Bush or Barack Obama, it does have to do with a shift in power.

Namely, the Angels -- that scrappy juggernaut in the AL West known for pitching, defense and the type of speed-oriented offensive game that sets traditionalist hearts aflutter -- have it in spades.

"We're a great hitting team," Angels center fielder Torii Hunter told FanHouse. "We're a better hitting team than a lot [of the others] in the American League."

Considering that Mike Scioscia has already won a World Series and a Manager of the Year Award, had seven winning seasons in his first nine running the Angels and currently has a contract that runs through 2018, it's hard to make the case that he's underappreciated.

This year, though, might add a new chapter to his story. It might get him elevated to the Joe Torre-Tony LaRussa-Bobby Cox class.

"He's the best in the game," Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher told FanHouse. "I think people don't realize he's the best, but there is no doubt in my mind that if you go ask everybody in this clubhouse, he's that good."