Scioscia planning tweaks

ANAHEIM, Calif. - After his team absorbed a 4-1 loss to the Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League Division Series Wednesday night, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said yesterday he would consider some "minor adjustments" to his lineup, no doubt in hopes of avoiding an 11th consecutive playoff loss to the Sox.

"We're considering a few things and the core of our lineup will remain the same," Scioscia said. "We have a lot of confidence in what our guys can do on the offensive side, and if you look at the last 60 or 70 games that we played, I think you saw an offense that can grind it out or hit the home run and break games open."

Against Jon Lester, that was not the case.

The 24-year-old lefthander kept the Halos handcuffed by allowing one run on six hits while striking out seven in a seven-inning tour de force in which he threw 117 pitches.

Despite getting nine hits (six off Lester), the Angels were unable to manufacture more than one run, which came in the third inning when Torii Hunter hit a single to left that scored Garret Anderson for a 1-0 lead.

The lack of production from the bottom third of the order was stark: 0 for 9 with three strikeouts against Lester.

Among the tweaks Scioscia was considering were in the outfield.

"Well, the field is cut down a little bit with Vlad [Guerrero] DHing, and the bats we're going to look at are either Gary Matthews or Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales," Scioscia said. "I don't think it's going to come down to one player. As far as the whole lineup, we need to pressure teams every inning and it's going to have to be as a cohesive unit, and if one player brings continuity, sure, it can have an impact.

"But we'll examine some things and there will be some minor adjustments.

"We're going to look at a couple of other things. I'm sure that there will be some slight adjustments to our look, but the core of our offense will be intact tomorrow."

Nothing for granted

While the Angels were one of the few teams to beat Daisuke Matsuzaka during the regular season, Hunter was quick to caution, as most Wall Street brokers will tell investors these days, not to rely upon past performances as an indicator of future returns. The Angels pinned Matsuzaka (18-3, 2.90 ERA) with his second loss of the season July 28 at Fenway Park as he gave up six runs on seven hits, including a pair of homers, in a 7-5 setback. "I'll tell you what, in the postseason, you get a different adrenaline, a different focus," Hunter said, referencing Lester's lights-out performance. "We got to Lester, too, during the [regular] season, and that guy this time was totally different than during the season. His cutter was cutting hard, his fastball was a little harder, and his curveball was biting. So, like I said, the postseason is something different and you can't go off what you did during the regular season. You got to do it right now and worry about it now." . . . Hunter acknowledged the Angels seemed caught off guard by Lester's dominance. "It was sort of a surprise," he said. "What we saw [Wednesday] night, we knew the guy was good, but we just didn't expect to see the nasty pitches and we kind of helped him out, too, by swinging at some bad pitches. We just have to be a little more patient, that's all." . . . Scioscia said reserve catcher Jeff Mathis will handle Ervin Santana tonight. Game 1 catcher Mike Napoli reported some soreness after taking a foul tip off his left kneecap. "It was kind of weird because that never really happens," said Napoli, referring to the ball hitting him squarely on his protected kneecap. "You usually get hit high or just real low. It's sore, but it's just another bump and bruise you got to deal with." . . . What caused Matthews to misplay Jacoby Ellsbury's low line drive to right into a three-base error with two outs in the seventh? "Lost it in the lights," Matthews reported. "It was more toward the end. It was a low line drive and it stayed low. Sometimes when you got to run toward your right in the gap, it gets in the band of lights."