Scioscia: `We're not getting eliminated tonight.'

After the Chicaco Cubs, the team with the best record in the National League, was swept in its best-of-five division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday night, it only seemed reasonable to ask Angels manager Mike Scioscia, whose team earned the best record in the American League after winning a franchise-record 100 games, why the best teams in September struggled to show that in October.

His team on the brink of suffering yet another three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox in the ALDS, Scioscia declined to comment.

``Well, first of all, we're not getting eliminated tonight, so I'm not going to answer that question,'' Scioscia said, defiantly. ``And we'll talk about that if it comes up, because we're not going to talk about it now.''

Pressed on the matter, Scioscia repeated, tersely, ``We're not getting eliminated tonight, and we'll talk about it at some point''

Scioscia said Torii Hunter's knee, which the center fielder hurt while protesting a close call after he appeared to beat out a throw to first base in Game 2, was fine. ``Torii feels great. He could have worked out [Saturday] and hit. We kept him out of batting practice just so we didn't want to _ didn't need to test it. He was out there running and he feels good.''

The lineup:

1. Chone Figgins, 3B
2. Garret Anderson, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Vladimir Guerrero, DH
5. Torii Hunter, CF
6. Juan Rivera, RF
7. Mike Napoli, C
8. Howie Kendrick, 2B
9. Erick Aybar, SS

SP: Joe Saunders (17-7, 3.41)