Hex of Hendu just won't go away

I hate to bring this up again after all these years, but somebody has to say something about the elephant in room. Just look at that thing. It's wearing red socks and dreadlocks and it just scared the Rally Monkey out the door, down the hall, out into the street and down the block screaming for help.

Ever since Dave Henderson deposited that Donnie Moore forkball over the left-field fence on Oct. 12, 1986, the Angels are winless in playoff games against the Boston Red Sox.

After losing Game 5 at home in the '86 ALCS, the Angels had two more chances in Boston to clinch a pennant for Gene Autry and Gene Mauch -- and they went 0-for-2. Aggregate score: Red Sox 18, Angels 5.

Eighteen years later, the Angels worked up the courage to play Boston in another playoff series, first round this time. Boston swept three straight. Aggregate score: Red Sox 25, Angels 12.

Back in the playoffs, back in Boston, in 2007, the Angels are 0-for-2 again, Manny Ramirez doing the Hendu thing one more time to Francisco Rodriguez Friday night. Or was that more a re-rerun of David Ortiz ending the '04 ALDS with his two-run home run off Jarrod Washburn?

All these franchise-crushing October moments the Angels keep having against the Red Sox -- it's tough to keep them straight.

Ramirez gave the Red Sox a 6-3 Game 2 victory by launching a three-run, game-ending home run that soared high into the New England night, seemingly reaching an altitude higher than the Angels' depressed flight back to Los Angeles Of Anaheim.

Including infamous Game 5 of '86, the Angels' record in their last eight postseason games against the Red Sox is 0-8. And unless they can figure out a way to score some runs against Curt Schilling on Sunday with a lineup that can't afford any more injuries but keeps running up that tab anyway, the Angels will be over and out until '08.

Friday, Vladimir Guerrero, already trying to gut out a playoff game in right field with a sore throwing arm, got hammered by a Manny Delcarmen fastball in his left arm, his good arm, in the seventh inning -- and was out of the game by the eighth.

Angels sluggers -- and there weren't that many of them to begin with -- have been cursed since the Angels clinched the AL West championship on Sept. 23. (Angels' record since then: 2-6.)

During the build-up (so to speak) to Game 1: Gary Matthews Jr. (18 regular-season home runs) is de-activated from the Angels' playoff roster because of knee tendinitis.

Just before Game 1: Garret Anderson (16 home runs) contracts conjunctivitis in his right eye, meaning he has to try to hit against Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jonathan Papelbon with one eye swollen shut.

During Game 2: Guerrero (27 home runs) is hurting enough to warrant removal from the lineup in the eighth inning of a 3-3 game.

That's 61 home runs -- virtually half of the 123 homers the Angels hit during regular season. Casey Kotchman is the only other Angels player with more than 10 home runs. He has hit 11.

Some free advice for Kotchman: Upon your return home, steer clear of black cats. And, considering the scouting report the Red Sox have on Angel Stadium, black rats too.

christine.daniels@latimes.com

Comments

[Jerry]

CHRISTINE, IT WAS ACTUALLY 18 YEARS {NOT 16} BETWEEN HINDU`S BLAST AND BIG PAPI`S SERIES ENDING WALK-OFF. BUT, TIME DOES FLY BY WHEN YOU`RE HAVING FUN!

SPEAKING OF RED SOX INSPIRED CURSES...HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THAT THE YANKEES ARE 0-8 IN ROAD PLAYOFF GAMES {3-12 OVERALL} SINCE DAVE ROBERTS STOLE SECOND IN GAME 4 OF THE 2004 ALSC?

FINALLY, ALL OF US MEMBERS OF RED SOX NATION GREATLY RESPECT THE RALLY MONKEY. HE WAS AMAZING IN 2002, AND AGAINST NY IN 2005!