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10/5/2005 Wednesday's MLB Opinion
Los Angeles Angels -120 over New York Yankees (Opinion)
Home teams in the playoffs fair much better in Game 2 of a series than in Game 1 by about 3-4 percent. This is true for all rounds and represents a 6-8% improvement to the home field advantage. It is particularly applicable when the home team loses Game 1 like the Angels did yesterday. In fact, the Angels were the only home team to lose yesterday and they lost with their ace on the mound. They have Lackey on the mound today who, if on the Yankees, would have been their ace. The Angels are going up against a rookie in Wang. We do not know how Wang will respond to the playoffs pressure. I think he will do just fine but there's the chance he will blow it. There is also the chance he does well but Lackey rocks the Yankees. The Angels struggle against lefties, Wang is no lefty so there is no reason to believe the Angels bats would go into a downward spiral today. The crowd at the Big A will get fired up and will try to wield these Angels to a victory.