ANAHEIM, Calif. — Damn, it’s a great game. How great? Two outs, nobody on, ninth inning, Angels up a run. And up steps Alex Rodriguez. Every conceivable mathematical application tells you there is a far greater chance that A-Rod will not hit a home run than he will.
But you know that’s absurd, because you have seen him all October.
And Mike Scioscia knows it is absurd, because he’s seen him brutalize baseballs all October, and he saw him knock a Brian Fuentes fastball into orbit to tie up a game a few days earlier. He wiggles four fingers. He willingly puts the tying run on base. And there isn’t a soul to disagree. Not on this night, not in this October of A-Rod.
PHOTOS: ANGELS BEAT YANKEES, FORCE GAME 6
He all but walks out of the dugout, takes the bat out of Rodriguez’s hands, all but walks him to first base himself. Does so gladly. Gulps hard when Fuentes then walks Hideki Matsui on a full count, and when speedster Brett Gardner pinch runs for Matsui as the go-ahead run. And nearly swallows his esophagus when Fuentes hits Robinson Cano.
And God only knows, when Fuentes reaches 3-and-2 on Nick Swisher . . .
And then, one pitch, and everyone heads back to New York for Game 6. One pitch, a pop fly to shortstop, the Angels win 7-6, and we have a baseball series again. Impossible. Incredibly.
The Angels had burst through the gates to start the game, pounding A.J. Burnett relentlessly and mercilessly. Putting four runs on the board before Burnett could ever record an out, calling into question just how important it is to switch catchers for a pitcher if a ball never makes past home plate to actually be, you know, caught.
John Lackey, meanwhile, began stifling the Yankees’ bats immediately after surrendering back-to-back hits to Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon leading off the game. He retired nine in a row after that, and was cruising through six innings in what may well be his last game in Anaheim as an Angel, making a few extra million bucks for himself along the way.
And just when it seemed he would start personally handing out boarding passes to his teammates for a trip to New York for Game 6 . . . the night started to take an odd turn.
The first shift came with your eyes: suddenly Lackey couldn’t find the plate, couldn’t get the Yankees to chase at his breaking stuff or flail at his fastball. Slowly, as the seventh inning progressed, you could see the Yankees start to look like the Yankees again.
The second one came with your ears, and this was something else. Suddenly, from the upper reaches of Angels Stadium you heard a familiar chant, one that crashed through the Thunderstix and the hopeful cheering of the red-clad natives. Suddenly, as the Yankees caught up to the Angels last night, and then as they roared past in the passing lane, you heard this echoing throughout the ballpark:
“Let’s go, YANKEES!”
“Let’s go, YANKEES!”
“Let’s go, YANKEES!”
Finally, the inevitability of it all seemed to seep through the stands, onto the field, into the bloodstreams of the ballplayers. It was 4-0, Angels and then it was 4-3, after Mark Teixeira did what he said he hoped to do last night, to join the fray with his bat. And then 4-4, because Hideki Matsui coaxed a line drive over the infield. And then 6-4, Yankees, as Robinson Cano found the right field gap.
The Thunderstix were gone. The Rally Monkey never got off the bench. There were just a couple of thousand Yankees fans sprinkled among the 45,113, but that didn’t matter. The Angels fans were flat as they watched their team get flattened. What seemed like a sure trip back to New York was now being measured for a victory celebration.
And then . . .
It started goofily enough: a-ha on the video board, “Take on Me” blasting through the speakers and . . . there it was, the infernal Rally Monkey. Silly, right? Except there was nothing funny about it. Burnett allowed a single and a walk and was gone, probably two batters too late. In came Damaso Marte, who allowed a sacrifice and an RBI grounder to Bobby Abreu before giving way to Phil Hughes.
Hughes probably should have started the inning, but as has been the case for many of his postseason appearances, he wasn’t the same pitcher he was in the regular season. He walked Torii Hunter, lost the lead on a single by Vladimir Guerrero and then surrendered the go-ahead hit to Kendry Morales.
And suddenly it sounded like an Angels home game again.