Dead wood

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It's an age-old question in baseball, right up there with "Why a Rally Monkey? Why not a Rally Cat, or a Rally Dog, or a Rally Ocelot for that matter?" and "Why do they have a stupid rule where a guy gets to run to first base if he strikes out?"

I'm talking, of course, about pitching vs. hitting. Specifically, this question: Is it good pitching, or bad hitting?

There's a related question concerning bad pitching and good hitting. But that's for another time and another American League Championship Series. It doesn't apply to this one, and it certainly doesn't apply to the Angels of Anaheim, who could get their own HBO series the way they're swinging the lumber in this ALCS.

"They're [perturbed]," Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher said of his Deadwood cast of characters, who are hitting a lame .174 in the first three games of this series. "I think they're [perturbed] at themselves.

"These guys, they get a look in their faces. I see that look in their faces."

Maybe that is [perturbedness] in the Angels' cherubic mugs. Maybe, understandably, they're just a little nauseous. Whatever it is, the Angels have to find a cure for it, quickly, or they'll be gone from this ALCS before it gets a chance to head back to Chicago early next week.

To be fair to the weak-swinging Angels, their opponents, the White Sox, have a little something to do with this problem. The Sox have thrown a wonderful opening game from Jose Contreras at the Angels, and then laid back-to-back complete-game wins on the poor Los Angelenos. The three Chicago starters in this series -- Contreras, Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland, who threw a four-hitter in Friday night's 5-2 win -- have a combined 2.05 ERA in this first-to-four ALCS, which the Sox now lead, two games to one.

But, as good as the White Sox have been, the Angels have to take some blame for this debacle, too.

Good pitching? Or bad hitting?

"Both," said Adam Kennedy, the Angels shortstop, who has two hits in eight at-bats in the series (.250), which makes him one of the best hitters the Angels have. "I mean, [giving up] five runs, it's not necessarily the end of the world. You feel like, as a team, as an offense, you're not pulling your weight. It's a little frustrating."