The Angels go with Lackey. They talk a lot about how he does not get the respect that the top pitchers on the East Coast do, but nothing would talk louder than a victory tonight.
The cliche is that momentum is the next day's starting pitcher. The Angels' next starting pitcher said he'll start with plenty of momentum.
"I think the confidence level has got to be high right now," Lackey said. "Any time you go into a game like that, extra inning games, a lot of times that carries over."
Napoli hit two home runs off Josh Beckett, another star among Texas pitching heroes. As Sunday night turned into Monday morning, Napoli's homers were left for the season highlight reel.
"Hopefully, about a month from now," Scioscia said, "we'll talk about that 3-2 breaking ball that Nap hit off one of the toughest pitchers ever in a playoff environment."
Scioscia called his shot more than nine hours before the Angels won.
In a pregame news conference, a reporter noted that the Chicago Cubs, the team with the best record in the National League, had been eliminated from the playoffs. The Angels, the team with the best record in the American League, faced elimination Sunday night, but Scioscia sternly cut off the line of questioning.
"We're not getting eliminated tonight, so I'm not going to answer that question," Scioscia said.
The reporter tried to soften his question, but Scioscia wasn't buying it. "We're not getting eliminated tonight," he said.
And then he walked out of the news conference, eventually. He tried the door adjacent to the stage, as directed, but the door was locked. He tried again, but the door would not open.
Finally, he had enough. He walked all the way to the other side of the room, where he found an open door. This isn't an easy series, for the Angels or their manager, but they hung in there long enough to find the door that leads to Game 5.
Lackey gets the ball tonight, and the chance to open that door. Might as well just knock the darn thing down.
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bill.shaikin@latimes.com
