Angels wake up not a moment too soon

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The attendants rolled the coolers and cardboard boxes into the Yankees' clubhouse Thursday evening. The young men would be the ones vacuuming and dabbing and toweling and squeegeeing the stuff out of the carpet, from the walls, off the ceiling for most of the night and morning; this was not an entirely joyful task.

It was therefore with light hearts when, 15 minutes later, our hard-working clubbies rolled the Budweiser and Korbel back into the hallway, out of sight and mind from a New York Yankees team that, for about that long, was bearing down on the World Series.

Only when the Yankees were gone, their bags packed and the bus pulling away, were the beer cans plucked from their icy bath, reset in their cardboard trays and put away for another happy time.

So shifted an American League Championship Series, ever slightly, the cool and confident Yankees still a game from their 40th pennant.

Angels pitcher John Lackey was pulled in the seventh inning with a 4-0 lead. The Yankees scored six runs in the inning after his departure.

(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

And so crept the Los Angeles Angels toward a more dignified outcome to this series, playing something like the kind of baseball that got them here, still with hope, pleased they'd at least forced a sober, uncomfortable trip to New York for the Yankees. Because, in about the time it took for 10 Yankees to have an at-bat in the top of the seventh inning of Game 5 here, the Angels were dead. And then in about the time it took for eight Angels to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, they were back, hanging on the rail, whooping it up, sure they had this thing whipped again.

"Crazy game, man," Torii Hunter(notes) said.

The Angels had gone from four up to two down to one up in the course of three recorded outs, that fast, that violent, settling with a 7-6 win and a Game 6 on Saturday night and a hard U-turn by some relieved clubbies.

The Angels finally put their bat barrels on the ball, finally put up some runs early and finally pushed back against a Yankees rally. They'd caught the ball and they'd ridden a big start from John Lackey(notes), even if there were some serious questions as to when it should have ended. One slip from the start of their offseason, one more Brian Fuentes(notes) pitch thrown without conviction and they were done.

"If you play as well as you can," manager Mike Scioscia said, "and another team steps up to beat you, you can live with that. You can get a little peace with that."

Since the end of the division series, actually for several years with the exception of this year's division series, the Angels could be counted on to play their worst baseball right around this time. Then they finally beat the Boston Red Sox and couldn't believe they were collapsing at the feet of the Yankees, down 3-1 in the ALCS like they didn't even belong, like the stage was too big.

As it is, they bought themselves another 48 hours or so. Their feet hadn't even touched the ground until their sixth batter of the first inning, by which time they'd scored four runs against A.J. Burnett(notes). Lackey stomped on and off the field seven times over about 2½ hours, forehead angled downward. In situations such as these, the color of his rear end generally matches that of his cap, and that's about how he pitched, with great purpose and some anger.

He left with two out in the seventh inning, the bases loaded but the 4-0 lead still standing. Scioscia arrived at the mound, his hand out, and perhaps Lackey had forgotten pitching coach Mike Butcher already had been to the mound once before in the inning, so he fought the move.

"This is mine, Sciosc," he told his manager. "This is mine. You're kidding me. Don't."

Angels players generally disagreed with the decision.

The Angels' rally monkey.

(US Presswire)

Down but not out

The Angels are trying to become the third team to rally from being down 3-1 in the ALCS.

Source: MLB

"Ride that bus," one player said, meaning their ace, Lackey. "Ride that bus."

Scioscia's strategy nearly finished their season. His heart, he said, told him to stay with Lackey. His head told him to summon Darren Oliver(notes), make Mark Teixeira(notes) bat right-handed, make him hit to the biggest part of the ballpark, to get out of the inning. Oliver's first pitch, a curveball, was clubbed by Teixeira into left-center field, indeed the biggest part of the ballpark. Three runs scored, the Yankees came to life, and three more would come in.

Notified in his office later that the decision didn't work particularly well, Scioscia laughed.

"Didn't work particularly well?" he said. "How 'bout, it was brutal? But, you've got to make moves and you've got to live with them."

In a tub across the way, ice and water sloshed as beer cans were tossed inside. A cart stacked with boxes of champagne was parked three feet from the clubhouse door. It was going to happen.

Except the Angels still had something left. Vladimir Guerrero(notes), who turned around Jonathan Papelbon's(notes) 95-mph fastball to beat the Red Sox, turned around Phil Hughes'(notes) 95-mph fastball to beat the Yankees 11 days later. Kendry Morales(notes), fighting the flu, banged a high fastball into right field, a pair of two-out hits bringing them back and putting them ahead.

Except Fuentes had somehow survived. And now they'd get another shot at Andy Pettitte(notes), who'd started the Yankees' only previous loss in the series. They'd held it together.

And there'd been no party across the way.

"Oh, man, I like it," Hunter said. "It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that. But it hasn't been easy for us all year."