Superb starting pitching can carry a team to a World Series title, as the Chicago White Sox showed in 2005, when Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia combined for a 9-1 record and a 2.84 earned-run average, four complete games and nine quality starts during an 11-1 run through the postseason.
The Angels don’t need to replicate that performance to play deep into October, but they’ll need competent starting pitching, the kind that will keep them in the game long enough to turn things over to a deep and dominant bullpen, the true strength of the pitching staff.
In Game 1 starter Jered Weaver, the Angels have dependability. The veteran right-hander is not overpowering, but his ability to change speeds and command a wide array of pitches and his pitbull mentality has made him one of baseball’s most effective starters for eight years.
Beyond Weaver, who is 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA in six postseason games, there are more questions than exclamations.
Left-hander C.J. Wilson was erratic in September and has struggled in the postseason, going 1-5 with a 4.82 ERA in 10 games for Texas in 2010-11, giving up 10 home runs, striking out 43 batters and walking 29 in 52 1/3 innings.
If he throws up a dud as he did Sept. 22, when he gave up six runs — four earned — and four hits and walked four in two-thirds of an inning of an 8-4 loss to Oakland, the Angels will have no chance.
Matt Shoemaker helped ease the loss of Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs to season-ending injuries, but the rookie right-hander is dealing with a mild left rib-cage strain that has sidelined him since Sept. 16.
And swingman Hector Santiago, who could pitch out of the rotation or bullpen, was as inconsistent as Wilson in September, giving up 10 earned runs in three innings of losses to Houston and Texas before rebounding to throw 5 1/3 scoreless innings against Oakland on Sept. 24.
The hitters could ease the pressure on the rotation by scoring early, and to do so they’ll have to snap a mini-funk in which they had only five runs and 19 hits in the final three regular-season games at Seattle.
Leadoff batter Kole Calhoun, who closed the season in a four-for-33 (.121) slide, could be key. When he’s on base, it will provide more run-producing opportunities for the middle of the order and make it tougher for opponents to pitch carefully to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols.
Manufacturing runs and delivering clutch hits against top-flight pitching is huge. The Angels have excellent speed in parts of the lineup, Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar are prime hit-and-run candidates, and Pujols and 2011 World Series most valuable player David Freese have excelled on the October stage.
The bullpen is so deep that if the starters can get through five, maybe even four, innings with a lead, especially of two runs or more, the Angels will be in excellent shape.
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