Angels finally find a way to beat the Yankees

ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- They prevailed on Monday in a game they couldn't dare lose, thanks to a clean-up hitter who hadn't homered all postseason, a closer who'd blown a save two nights prior, a catcher who hit .211 this year, an old reliever who delayed retirement only with his wife's blessing, and a young second baseman banished earlier this year to the minors. So no wonder the Los Angeles Angels, after their latest walk-off victory, considered themselves a team reborn.

"It just changes everything. Everything," the reliever, Darren Oliver, 39, said. "Now, it's a series."

The Angels' revival is not complete. They still trail the Yankees 2-1 in the American League Championship Series, and they know that their charmed formula from Game 3 -- a charging comeback, some excruciating missed opportunities, a final comeback -- isn't quite the cut-and-paste survival strategy. But for one afternoon at Angel Stadium, it didn't matter.

After the Angels grabbed Game 3, 5-4, with a walk-off Jeff Mathis double in the 11th, it didn't matter that they'd trailed early by three runs, or that they'd butchered all those late-game chances, or that they'd relied on so many reclamation projects while saving their chances in this series. Only the final result mattered. The Yankees lost for the first time all postseason. The Angels kept their chances alive.

Said Mathis, who roped the 11th-inning double off Alfredo Aceves that scored Howie Kendrick: "It was huge."

Said Kendrick, who'd singled one batter earlier, with two outs: "I agree with Jeff right there."

For 4 hours 21 minutes, the Angels and Yankees clawed at one another with such desperation, a walk-off seemed like the only suitable endpoint. Yankees Manager Joe Girardi used eight pitchers, at one point inserting his DH as a defensive replacement, thereby wedging Mariano Rivera into the batting order.

And the box score only tells part of it. In their 18th come-from-behind win this season, the Angels trailed 3-0 by the fifth, the result of solo homers from Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Johnny Damon. With Andy Pettitte cruising, the Yankees had the foundation of another classic win, brought to you by their stars with rings and/or trophies.

The Angels knew how to counter this only because they've done it all year -- pushing, prevailing. Each contributor on Monday had already proven, at least once, how to come back. Kendrick, whose fifth-inning solo homer broke Pettitte's shutout, was hitting .231 at the time of his June demotion to Class AAA. And Vladimir Guerrero, whose sixth-inning two-run shot tied the game, finally giving a playoff crowd the license to get loud, had entered the afternoon with zero postseason RBI, only promising teammates a day earlier, "I'm gonna do something special."

"When he hit that home run, that's why my eyes were so big," teammate Torii Hunter said.

Indeed, for much of the game, the Angels and Yankees observed a puzzling truce, whereby no run could be scored by means other than a homer. In this game, there were six of them. The Yankees hit the first three. The Angels hit the next two. And so the game was tied at 3. Jorge Posada's eighth-inning homer tied the game at 4 for the Yankees.

The homers made for a clear-cut blow-by-blow, but don't let that fool you. Because as this game developed -- starters yielding to their bullpens; afternoon turning toward dusk; traffic clogging on the Orange Freeway beyond center -- every inning supplied another reason for regrets, lost sleep, and mystified second-guessing, the full rainbow of bewilderment.