BOSTON — With their second-most dramatic postseason comeback in franchise history Sunday afternoon and the New York Yankees’ division series-clinching win over the Minnesota Twins hours later, the Los Angeles Angels went from the haunted to the hunted.
Many of the questions posed to the Angels before their division series with Boston were of a mental, even mystical, nature: Are the Red Sox in your heads? How do you break the “hex” the Red Sox have over you?
The Angels disposed of those queries and the Red Sox — with Sunday’s comeback from a 5-1 fifth-inning deficit for a 7-6 victory in Fenway Park that completed the first playoff sweep in club history.
Juan Rivera hit a two-run single in the eighth inning, and Vladimir Guerrero’s two-run single capped a three-run ninth for a win that nearly rivaled Game 6 of the 2002 World Series, when the Angels rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the seventh inning to beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5.
Now it’s on to the American League Championship Series against New York — Game 1 of the best-of-seven series is Friday in Yankee Stadium — and it will be the Yankees, of all teams, who will have to answer the same questions that grew wearisome for the Angels.
The Yankees may be baseball royalty, the franchise with 26 World Series trophies, but the Angels have won both of their playoff series against the Yankees, eliminating them in 2002 and 2005 division series.
The Angels are the only team with a winning record (79-66, including playoff games) against the Yankees since 1996. And they are 33-20 in their last 53 games against the Yankees, including a three-game sweep in Anaheim before the All-Star break.
The Yankees are girding for battle.
“We are going to have a nasty series,” pitcher Andy Pettitte told reporters Sunday night. “It’s going to be a war with us and the Angels, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Before the Angels played a makeup game in Yankee Stadium on Sept. 14, their clubhouse was filled with New York-based reporters peppering them with questions about why they’ve been so successful against the Yankees.
Both will have their hands full.
The Yankees have two horses at the top of their rotation, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, baseball’s most decorated postseason closer in Mariano Rivera and a deep and powerful lineup led by Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, shredded by the New York media for past playoff failures, was five for 11 with two home runs and six RBI against the Twins and loves to hit in Angel Stadium, where he has a .335 average, 37 home runs and 82 RBI in 89 games.
“Believe me, we have a huge challenge in front of us,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said Sunday, when asked about a possible Freeway World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Before we talk about a Freeway Series, we’re going to have to beat an incredible team in the Yankees.”
Ditto for the Yankees.
“What makes them tough is they hit, they pitch, they run, they steal, they play defense, good bullpen, good closer, good manager,” said Jeter, the Yankees’ shortstop since 1996. “I think that pretty much wraps it up.”
Before the division series, pitcher Joe Saunders said the only way the Angels were going to shake Boston’s playoff stranglehold on them was to take the field knowing they could win, not thinking they could win.
“If we’re comfortable, confident, and play the way we’re capable of playing, we’ll be tough to beat,” Saunders said. “If we play scared, on our heels, and waiting for bad things to happen, it’s not going to be a good series. We can’t beat ourselves.”
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