Angels, Yanks try to avoid same fate as Cubs, Phillies

Nobody wants to go down 0-2 in a best-of-five series. Nobody wants to be in the situation the Cubs and Phillies find themselves in today.

World Series Coverage   Monday John Donovan: Rox, Sox built to last Albert Chen: Ellsbury an unlikely hero Joe Sheehan: Scenes, notes from clincher Red Sox celebrate World Series victory Sunday Sox clip Rockies 4-3 to win World Series John Donovan's Report Card for Game 4 Jon Heyman's 15 Greatest Mr. Octobers Lowell takes home Series MVP honors Dynasty in the making for Red Sox? Clock strikes midnight for Rockies' ride Time.com: Red Sox are the new Yankees Saturday Red Sox down Rockies 10-5, take 3-0 lead John Donovan's Report Card for Game 3 Tom Verducci: The Sox are superior John Donovan: The Coors Field factor Jon Heyman: Four keys to Game 3 Friday Melissa Segura: Corpas gets his wish John Donovan: Rockies' lumber slumber Jon Heyman: How the Sox got Beckett Joe Sheehan: Electric night at Fenway Thursday Schilling, bullpen shut down Rockies 2-1 John Donovan's Report Card for Game 2 Tom Verducci's five cuts for Thursday Albert Chen on the Red Sox's bullpen John Donovan: Rockies turn to a rookie Joe Sheehan: Postseason drama lacking Tale of the Tape: Rockies vs. Red Sox World Series Fungoes Joe Lemire on Rockies-Red Sox Schedule/Box Scores Game 1: Red Sox 13, Rockies 1 Game 2: Red Sox 2, Rockies 1 Game 3: Red Sox 10, Rockies 5 Game 4: Red Sox 4, Rockies 3

So Friday, the Yankees and Angels will do everything they can to try to avoid falling into that same pit. The Yankees, stunned in their playoff opener Thursday, try to get back at the Indians in Cleveland. The Angels, stymied by a brilliant pitching performance on Wednesday by Boston's Josh Beckett, try to regain their footing to even things with the Sox at Fenway Park.

Getting down 0-2 in a best-of-five division series is not insurmountable. In fact, seven of 50 such teams rallied the win the series: the 1981 Dodgers, 1982 Brewers, 1984 Padres, 1995 Mariners, 1999 Red Sox, 2001 Yankees and 2003 Red Sox.

Still, nobody wants to go down 0-2. Friday is important. Critical, even, for the Yankees and the Angels.

Here's a look at Friday's two postseason games:

Yankees at Indians, 5 p.m. ET

LHP Andy Pettitte (15-9, 4.05 ERA) vs. RHP Fausto Carmona (19-8. 3.06)

When your ace is banged around like the Yankees' Chien-Ming Wang was in Game 1 on Thursday -- nine hits, eight runs in 4 2/3 innings -- everything looks bad. The bullpen in front of Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera. The defense. The hitters. Joe Torre's employment outlook with the Yankees.

Of course, that all changes if Pettitte comes through Friday in Game 2. Pettitte has made a career out of pitching in important postseason games. He has a whopping 34 postseason starts -- only Tom Glavine has more -- and is 7-3 in 12 division series starts with a 4.26 ERA. He slipped a little in September, but Pettitte had a really good August (6-0, 2.36). Expect his best in Game 2.

Carmona is the postseason pitching opposite of Pettitte, a hard-throwing 23-year-old in his first playoff game. The pressure will still be there for him, but the Indians' Game 1 win -- 12-3, for goodness sakes -- should ease it some. Carmona has been devastating all year, with a sinking fastball and an improving repertoire of offspeed stuff. He's 5-0 in his last seven starts with a 2.85 ERA.

Look out for: Cleveland's switch-hitting catcher, Victor Martinez, had a nice start to his postseason with a single, a double and a two-run homer off Wang. The Indians' cleanup hitter is a force from either side, but he's definitely weaker when he's facing a lefty.

Angels at Red Sox, 8:30 p.m. ET

RHP Kelvim Escobar (18-7, 3.40) vs. RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (15-12, 4.40)

The Angels lost Game 1 to Josh Beckett, throwing one of the best postseason games ever. Not a big deal. Really. No way could the Angels have expected to go into Boston and win two games. But a split there is a near necessity. Get to Matsuzaka, and the Angels are fine heading back to Anaheim. Lose this one and there's no place the Angels can hide.

Can the Angels get to Dice-K? Well, a lot of teams did in the second half of the season. Since the last time he blanked a team -- July 24, in seven innings against the Indians in Cleveland -- Matsuzaka has a 5.64 ERA in 11 starts. He's still striking out a lot more than he walks, but he's giving up more homers, too (11 in those last 11, after giving up just 14 in his first 21 starts).

That said, the Angels' starter can be had, too. Don't buy into Escobar's high win total. He's 7-1 in his last nine starts -- he's fought a sore shoulder some of that time -- with a 5.15 ERA.

Look out for: After missing more than a week in September with a wrist injury, Boston's Kevin Youkilis is back. He had a double and a homer in Game 1. With him getting on base for the big guys, the Sox are right where they want to be, offensively speaking.

The bottom lines

One last point on Lou Piniella's decision to pull Carlos Zambrano from Game 1 after just 85 pitches and the ensuing -- not to mention stupid and ridiculous -- second-guessing of it. Pay attention, now. This may be too complicated for some Piniella pounders: Once Zambrano gets past 75 pitches, in pitches 76-100, he allows hitters a .292 average against him, with a .903 OPS. When Carlos Marmol comes in -- he was the one Piniella called on Wednesday -- opponents are hitting just .158 off him in the first 25 pitches he throws. They're slugging only .211. He had given up only two home runs all season in his first 25 pitches. Overall, for more than the past month, Marmol has had a sub-1.00 ERA. Going with Marmol was the right call. If Piniella made a mistake, it was telling people that he was trying to save Zambrano for Game 4. Maybe that entered into his thinking, but yanking Zambrano at that time was the smart thing to do regardless of his plans for him ... C.C. Sabathia walked six batters and had only five strikeouts in Game 1 against the Yankees. It's the first time he's had more walks than strikeouts in a game since May 2 of 2006 ... Hear the Rockies manager Clint Hurdle in an in-between innings interview on Thursday, explaining why he took out hyped-up rookie Franklin Morales after three innings? He said he wanted to get someone in there "with a little slower heartbeat." ... Jimmy Rollins is playing like an MVP, even if his team is not ... Kaz Matsui almost had the first cycle in postseason history, missing on a single in his last at-bat Thursday. If that doesn't tell you about the weird start to these playoffs, nothing will ... Hey, TBS. What do you think of a possible Rockies-Diamondbacks NLCS? Not exactly a nationwide attention-grabber, is it?