The Angels play "small ball" more than most, and they are usually good at it. Erick Aybar's botched suicide squeeze bunt in the ninth, though, may have backfired them right out of the postseason. Pinch-runner Reggie Willits was caught when Aybar bunted air instead of Justin Masterson's fast ball.
Starting pitcher John Lackey was unhappy about a lot of things -- losing, bad breaks, some cheap hits by the Red Sox -- but he didn't question the squeeze strategy.
"That's our style," he said. "It got us here so we'll keep playing that kind of a game."
The Angels also were grumpy that catcher Jason Varitek lost the ball as he hit the ground after diving to tag Willits.
"Usually you have to have control of the ball after tagging someone," said Garret Anderson. "It's a judgement call and it didn't go our way. But you can't point at that one thing and say that's why we lost the ballgame. It's a lot of things."
That's just the one most Angels fans will remember.

--Gregg Patton

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