Baseball News - Angels "Rally" to Victory


Nothing has been easy for the 2004 Angels, and nothing was easy about their shining moment of the season ... so far.

Needing one win over the Oakland A's to clinch their first American League West title in 18 years and trailing by two runs in the eighth inning, the Angels mounted a three-run rally to stun the A's and book a ticket to their second AL Division Series in the last three years.

The teams were tied for first place at the start of the three game series, and many expected the race to come down to the last game. Anaheim ended those expectations with two consecutive wins.

The Angels held on for a 5-4 victory Saturday before 42,832 in Network Associates Coliseum and will be playing either at home against the Boston Red Sox or in New York against the Yankees on Tuesday.

If the Angels finish the regular season with a better record than Minnesota, it'll be Boston in Angel Stadium. If they don't, it'll be a trip to the
"House that Ruth Built" in the Bronx for a rematch of the 2002 ALDS that the Angels won in four games.

On Saturday, as it has been in many of their 92 wins this season, it came down to a battle of the bullpens.

AL MVP candidate Vladimir Guerrero hit a game tying, two run homer with two outs in the sixth. It was Vlad's 39th homer of the year and 206th hit (career high).

With the A's leading, 4-2, heading into the eighth and Oakland lefty Barry Zito having handcuffed the Angels on three hits through the first seven, A's manager Ken Macha decided to turn to his relief crew and the Angels took off.

Zito was pitching through stiffening pain in his legs and told Macha that it was affecting his pitching. "My legs were tightening up on me for the last couple of innings," Zito said. "I have to trust myself. I'm going to pitch as long as I can."

Right-hander Jim Mecir gave up a leadoff single to Bengie Molina and a one-out single to Chone Figgins that pushed pinch-runner Josh Paul to second.

Left-hander Ricardo Rincon was called upon next, and he gave up a first-pitch, game-tying double to Darin Erstad that hit high off the wall in right-center field.

After an intentional walk to Vladimir Guerrero and a Troy Glaus flyout, Garret Anderson singled home another run to make it 5-4.

Then the Angels' bullpen took over.

Brendan Donnelly got the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Francisco Rodriguez walked the leadoff man, and then struck out the side in the eighth. Flamethrowing closer Troy Percival shut down the A's in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning. The celebration began, and the Angels found themselves celebrating on the field for their first division title since 1986.




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