Angels awaken, and get to play on

Early lead vanishes, but L.A. rallies and will return to New York

ANAHEIM, CALIF. -- Up they rose, straight out of the history books, the Angels team you thought you'd never see again. There they were, in the flesh still alive. When Game 5 of the American League Championship Series ended on Thursday, they had the vital signs to prove it -- a racing heart rate, energy, a reason to talk about the short-term future, because they still have one. They're just good sometimes at tricking you.

Let the record show, the Los Angeles Angels still have a chance. In Thursday's 7-6 win against the Yankees at Angel Stadium, the Angels saved their season not once, but twice, and whatever it cost them in expended energy was worth the entertainment. They were up big early; they had a comfortable lead; they lost it all in a half-inning; and they regained it all with a final, seventh-inning comeback. In short, the Angels won a game on the same night they blew a game. Good luck using that data to forecast the next 72 hours of momentum.

The Yankees, up 3-2 in this series, still have the advantage as this series heads back to Yankee Stadium for Game 6 Saturday. But their look of invincibility? That's gone. The Angels raced out to a 4-0 lead Thursday against New York starter A.J. Burnett, and held a shutout, thanks to the stellar work of starter John Lackey, into the seventh.

When Lackey loaded the bases with two outs in that frame, Manager Mike Scioscia made a decision that might have had a whole corner of California squealing. Because he removed his starter and replaced him with a reliever who unloaded the bases in what became a six-run inning.

But the Angels, who relied all season on their comebacks, erupted for three runs in the bottom of the seventh, reclaiming a lead and reawakening the crowd of 45,113.

The game stayed tense all the way into the top of the ninth, where closer Brian Fuentes intentionally walked Alex Rodriguez with two outs, then walked Hideki Matsui. When Fuentes hit Robinson Canó with an 0-1 breaking ball, the bases were loaded. Finally, in the same at-bat that had a dribbler down the line (foul) and a two-strike foul tip, Nick Swisher, with the count full, popped up to the shortstop. Game over.

The tenor of this game had changed abruptly, for the first time, in the top of the seventh, an inning that began with the Angels ahead 4-0. Then the bruises started coming. A one-out double by Melky Cabrera. A Jorge Posada walk, which came on a close 3-2 pitch that Lackey thought should have called strike three. He then walked Derek Jeter on four pitches, and after a Johnny Damon flyout, his night was over. There were two outs in the inning, and Scioscia wanted a left-handed reliever, Darren Oliver, to face No. 3 hitter Mark Teixeira.

Teixeira, at that moment, had endured a miserable offensive postseason, with five hits in just 33 at-bats. He hadn't gotten an RBI all series.

One swing, and Teixeira caught up.

He smoked the first pitch from Oliver, a curveball, into the left-center gap, clearing the bases, cutting the Angels' lead to 4-3, and giving the fans their first jolt of discomfort.

Soon that discomfort transformed into something more agonizing.

Oliver intentionally walked Rodriguez. The next hitter, Matsui, ripped a game-tying single up the middle. Oliver was replaced by Kevin Jepsen, whose first batter, Canó, blasted a two-RBI triple, giving the Yankees a 6-4 lead.

So there you had it. One inning, 10 batters, a new ballgame.

For Burnett, all was forgiven.

Burnett had started this game in a manner that seemed to all but end it. With little command, Burnett was target-locked for nothing but a Game 6. He walked the leadoff batter on five pitches. And then, with alarming rapidness, the next four batters he faced -- Bobby Abreu, Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero and Kendry Morales -- all unleashed hard-hit singles or doubles. Eight pitches into the inning, the Yankees were down by two. Nine pitches in, they were down three. Twelve pitches in, they were down four.

Considering that start, Burnett salvaged his night, holding the Angels without a run for the next five frames. When the Yankees snatched the lead in the top of the seventh, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi made a perplexing decision to send Burnett out for another inning. Only when Burnett started the frame by allowing a hit and a walk was he finally pulled. Jeff Mathis, who got the leadoff single, scored on Bobby Abreu's grounder to first against reliever Damaso Marte. That made it a one-run game.

Phil Hughes replaced Marte, and with two outs, a one-run game swung once again.

With runners on first and third, the No. 4 hitter, Guerrero, snuck a ground ball up the middle, just a foot beyond the range of a diving Jeter. Erick Aybar, who had walked against Burnett, crossed the plate. The next batter, Morales, lifted Los Angeles to a 7-6 lead by cracking a single on the ground between first and second, scoring Hunter.