ALDS Game 2: Red Sox @ Angels

Posted on October 15, 2009

Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitches against the Boston Red Sox during Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Angel Stadium on October 9, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

After shooting Game 1 of the Red Sox vs. Angles series by myself I was joined at Game 2 by the great Sports Illustrated staffer John McDonough and his assistant Jordan Murph. Having two photographers covering a game is so much better than having just one, as this allows us to have photographers shooting from two completely different shooting positions. This means our editor will have a wide variety of images to look at from two distinct and different angles.

During big post season games like this you never know which angle will have the best view of the play of the game. Sometimes it is from outside first base. Sometimes it is from third base. Sometimes it is from overhead. For this game we decided that John would shoot from the super cool inside first base position that I shot from in Game 1, and I would shoot from a real nice position in the outside third base photo well, right next to the Angels dugout.

After shooting the pitchers from behind the plate in the first inning like I did in Game 1 I settled into my spot at third base. I love shooting from third base. I shoot from this side all the time during the regular season because most everyone else is always at first base. I like shooting the outfield from this side and love shooting base runners cut the bag at second and steam into third base (see above photo of Jacoby Ellsbury). There are certain pictures you just can’t get from anywhere but third base and I tried to capitalize on this during this game.

Just like in Game 1, the Red Sox offense was not able to get anything going against the tough Angels pitching. In Game 1 it was John Lackey, this night it was Jered Weaver who was mowing down the Boston hitters. Once again there was not much action to shoot, other than pitchers and batters as this game moved into the late innings. Weaver was the story and because of my position just past the Angels dugout I was able to get a few nice frames of him smiling after he came out of the game (see above).

I had a lot of fun shooting this game next to my good friend Kevin Sullivan of the Orange County Register. We kept sitting on infielders during many at bats trying to get some great defensive pictures but nothing great ever happened. As the innings flew by we were once again left with a game with a simple story line: Angels win; Red Sox lose; Angels pitch well; Red Sox don’t hit (again).

With the score 4-1 Angels heading into the top of the 9th inning I went back behind home plate to get a good angle to shoot Angels closer Brian Fuentes. While I was back there I was able to bet a better angle of the Red Sox first base dugout. From the spot behind the plate I shot a picture of Dustin Pedroia and his teammates looking sad (see above) as the game came to a close and they found themselves down two games to none in the best of five series.

After getting some nice action images of Fuentes from behind the plate all that was left was to focus on him after the third and final out of the game to try and get some decent jube (photographers slang for jubilation or celebration) of him celebrating with his teammates. It seems that Fuentes is not much of a jube guy so I was limited to the picture above to tell the story of the Angels going up two games to none on the ALDS. They went on to finish the sweep two days later at Fenway Park in Boston. The Angels are a nice club with a great group of guys. It would be fun to shoot them again in a few weeks at the World Series!