Angels in playoff haunt again

LOS ANGELES - Nine in a row. This series is about mind games as much as it is about baseball games.

The Angels of Southern California play the Red Sox tonight in the first game of their best-of-five American League Division Series. Like the Red Sox of 2004 and the Cubs of today, the Halos are lugging some heavy baggage into this October-fest.

Dating to 1986, the Angels have lost nine consecutive playoff games to the Boston Red Sox. Aggregate score: 69-27. It's a lot of weight to carry into Game 1 tonight.

It all started with Gene Mauch and Donnie Moore 22 years ago. The Angels held a 3-1 series edge in the ALCS and took a 5-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning of Game 5 at the Big A.

Bill Buckner, of all people, got things started for the Red Sox with a seemingly harmless single. Don Baylor's one-out, two-run homer cut the lead to 5-4 and stopped the noise from 64,223 Orange County fans. With two outs and a man on, closer Donnie Moore was summoned to pitch to Dave Henderson. Hendu cranked a two-run homer to left and the Sox won it in extra innings. The series returned to Boston and the Sox won both to advance to the World Series. Roger Clemens was the winning pitcher in Game 7. It was the final postseason series for Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson.

A long time ago.

Certainly the 100-win Angels of 2008 cannot be asked to answer for the sins of their 1986 forefathers, but the last six October losses to Boston are fresh in the minds of Messrs. Scioscia, Figgins, Rodriguez, Anderson, Guerrero, and Lackey. Not to mention the Rally Monkey. Those individuals were all part of the Angels when the Sox swept them in 2004.

Boston's 2007 sweep of Arte Moreno's Nine is certainly fresh in the minds of most who'll play for Los Angeles tonight.

Angels fans (yes, there are Angels fans) will be quick to remind you that their team beat the Sox eight out of nine times this season. They might add that their team was sapped of strength last October. They were without Gary Matthews Jr. (knee) and Garret Anderson was sent home with conjunctivitis. Vladimir Guerrero had a sore shoulder. The Angels hit only .192 in the three games, scoring a whopping four runs. When Curt Schilling faced them in the clincher, on Sunday, Oct. 7, the cleanup hitter was Reggie Willits - a man with zero homers in 475 at-bats. They probably like their chances better with Mark Teixeira, Torii Hunter, and a healthy Vladdy.

Pitching usually makes the difference this time of year and the Angels got a break when it was announced that Josh Beckett is out until at least Game 3 because of a strained oblique. Beckett has been the Bob Gibson of his generation and pretty much won the World Series for the Red Sox all by himself in 2007. Now the Angels know he's not going to face them twice in this series, maybe not at all. It's a big difference.

It would be a lie to tell you that the series is all the rage in Southern California. Dodgers-Cubs is always going to be a bigger deal in SoCal, but the Angels seem to be gaining ground in the fight for the indifferent fans that Manny Ramírez loves so much. When the Angels played their only home game in last year's playoffs, the ALDS story was advanced on Page 20 of the Los Angeles Times sports section.

All that said, this Game 1 is bigger than most first games. Start with John Lackey, who has an abysmal record against the Red Sox (3-6, 5.54 ERA). Sure, Lackey pitched great at Fenway July 29 (remember when he had the no-hitter and Manny wouldn't run out the ground ball?), but he's still got something to prove against the Red Sox. He gave up four runs in the first three innings of Game 1 in Boston last year. That was Beckett's four-hit shutout. Over before it started.

Winning tonight would give Lackey confidence against the Red Sox, and convince the Angels that they might actually be better than Boston. In the wake of the '04 and '07 playoff sweeps, it's a tough sell, even though the Halos dominated this season.

Nobody remembers that the Red Sox lost 13 consecutive playoff games between 1986 and 1995. That stuff all goes away as soon as you win one. The Angels need to win one tonight. Or we'll be hammering them for losing 10 straight to the Sox in October.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.