#3 10/13/02 – Anaheim Stadium - 2002 ALCS Game 5 Victory over Twins

In their ALCS showdown with the Twins, Minnesota took Game 1 by a score of 2-1. The Angels only managed to get four hits against Twins’ starter Joe Mays. Knowing that they’d need to take one in Minnesota, the Angels came up big in Game 2, scoring six runs on ten hits, including homers by Darin Erstad and Brad Fullmer. Game 3 was another pitchers’ duel, but solo shots by Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus powered the Angels to a 2-1 win. Rookie John Lackey pitched seven scoreless innings to start Game 4. Twins’ starter Brad Radke matched him pitch for pitch until the seventh, when the Angels broke the tie with a pair of runs. They then busted out for five more in the eighth to give the young Texan a 7-1 victory in his first postseason start.

The situation was eerily familiar to Angel fans who had been around for the Angels’ last postseason in ’86. Holding a 3-1 lead in the ALCS, the Angels were hosting Game 5, with a chance to advance to their first World Series in franchise history. Would this be the year they finally won? Or would their beloved Angels find a new way to lose?

Veteran pitcher Kevin Appier took the mound for the Angels. He gave up runs in both the first and the second. In the bottom of the third, the Angels’ #9 hitter, Adam Kennedy, sent the first pitch he saw into the seats to cut the deficit in half.

In the bottom of the fifth, Scott Spiezio and Kennedy both hit solo shots giving the Angels a 3-2 lead. But the Twins weren’t dead yet. In the top of the seventh, they roughed up rookie pitchers Brendan Donnelly and Frankie Rodriguez for three runs.

The ghosts of autumns past began circling overhead, haunting the memories of longsuffering Angel fans who remembered only too well the collapses of seasons past. While they chanted “Yes We Can!” in ’79, the Baltimore Orioles declared “No You Can’t!” They had front row seats to watch the ’82 Milwaukee Brewers become the first team to rally back from a 2-0 LCS deficit to win the series, despite Fred Lynn’s MVP performance. Worst of all, they witnessed the self-implosion of the ’86 team that had come within one strike of reaching the World Series, then watched in horror as Dave Henderson took Donnie Moore deep – a blow from which neither the ’86 team, nor Moore, would ever recover. And then there was the disastrous collapse of the ’95 club that suffered two infamous nine game losing streaks down that stretch, then rallied back to win their last five to finish tied with the Mariners, only to blown away 9-1 in the one game playoff. 

Of course, their predecessors had never had a furry primate in their corner to help them rally out of the jams they faced. The cuddly mascot appeared on the JumboTron as the Angels came to bat in the bottom of the seventh, and Angel fans everywhere joined the cacophony of cheers generated by the hometown crowd. After all, the ape had an uncanny ability to wake up the Angel bats…and that’s exactly what happened.

Spiezio singled to right. Bengie Molina followed with a single to left. Then Kennedy stepped up to the plate for the third time. This time he was asked to bunt. After fouling off the bunt attempt, Scioscia let him swing away. Down in the count 0-2, Kennedy launched Johan Santana’s fourth pitch into the right-field bleachers for his third home run of the game! It was an accomplishment that only four other players had ever done in postseason history – Reggie Jackson, George Brett, Bob Robertson, and Babe Ruth. Best of all, it gave the Angels a 6-5 lead.

But the Angels were just getting started. Eckstein beat out an infield single. Erstad sliced a single to left. Salmon drilled a single to left, loading the bases. Alex Ochoa entered as a pinch runner for Salmon. Garret Anderson walked, forcing in Eckstein – 7-5. Glaus struck out for the first out. Shawn Wooten knocked a single to right, scoring Erstad – 8-5. A wild pitch scored Ochoa – 9-5. Spiezio looped a single to left, scoring Anderson and Wooten – 11-5. Figgins cracked a  single to left. Kennedy came up again, but this time sliced a single to left for his fourth hit of the game. Eckstein was hit by a pitch, scoring Spiezio – 12-5. Erstad grounded out, scoring Figgins on the play – 13-5. Ochoa struck out, finally ending the inning.

But what an inning! By the time it was over, the Angels had set or tied the following post-season or LCS records: runs scored in an inning (10), hits in an inning (10), consecutive hits in an inning (6), singles in an inning (9), plate appearances in an inning (15), at bats in an inning (13), and players with two hits in an inning (2 – Spiezio and Kennedy). Twins’ 1B Doug Mientkiewicz summed it up best, “We just ran into a buzzsaw.”

Best of all, the ghosts of Angels past were finally silenced. The Twins were shell-shocked. Ben Weber set them down 1-2-3 in the eighth, and Percival mowed down the side in the ninth – inducing a pop fly to Eckstein for the final out. The Angels had finally made it to the World Series!