If the first two games are any indication, the wild-card World Series could turn into an instant classic.
Anaheim and San Francisco provided a keepsake memory for the 2002 season on a wild Sunday night at Edison Field, staging a game that had a little bit of everything.
In the end, it was Tim Salmon’s two-out, two-run, eighth-inning homer off Felix Rodriguez that sent the Angels to a pulsating 11-10 victory, evening the Series at a game apiece as they head to San Francisco.
“Those were two of the best games I’ve seen in a long time,” Angels closer Troy Percival said.
Anaheim exploded in one inning and imploded the next, while San Francisco alternated between sleepwalking and moonwalking.
It was a made-for-October spectacle that lasted late into the night, taking Angels and Giants fans through the ringer. On a night when the unexpected became the norm, the Angels blew a five-run, first-inning lead, starters Kevin Appier and Russ Ortiz failed to last past the second, DH Brad Fullmer became the first player in 38 years to steal home, and a couple of guys named Rodriguez dueled in the late innings under a full moon.
“I’ve said it a million times,” Salmon said. “This club is amazing.”
Of all the players who could’ve stepped up, it figured that Salmon would be the chosen one. He wound up with two home runs and four hits, becoming the 13th player in Series history to reach base five times in a game.
“That’s for everyone who talked trash about him,” Fullmer said. “He had one bad year (2001) and everyone was calling for his head.”
The Angels blew a 5-0 lead after one inning only to bounce back from a 9-7 deficit, tying it on Garret Anderson’s RBI single in the sixth.
Rookie phenom Francisco Rodriguez shut down the Giants for three sparkling innings, giving Salmon a chance to be the hero.
With a man on first and two outs in the eighth, Salmon delivered a two-run shot into the Angels’ bullpen, putting Edison Field up for grabs.
“This is what the World Series is all about,” San Francisco manager Dusty Baker said.
But it wasn’t over yet, not with Barry Bonds due up third in the top of the ninth inning.
Percival came in to replace Francisco Rodriguez and retired the first two batters on flyouts to left. Bonds then smoked a fastball deep into the right-field bleachers, one of the hardest hit balls any of the Angels players had seen.
“I scripted it from the bullpen,” Percival said. “I said I’ll get the first two outs, and then it doesn’t matter how far he hits it.
“I knew Bonds’ strength is near the belt, down the middle, and he was going to crush it if he gets it. It doesn’t matter if he gets it out by a foot or 600 feet. It’s all the same.”
The game got off to an auspicious start when the first four Anaheim batters got hits off Ortiz, leading to the first five-run first inning a World Series since Baltimore did it to Pittsburgh in Game 1 in 1979. But Appier gave up a three-run shot to Reggie Sanders in the second, followed by a solo homer by David Bell, and the roller-coaster ride was on.
Salmon’s two-run homer in the second made it 7-4, but the Giants came back with a Jeff Kent homer in the third and took the lead with a four-run fifth off Ben Weber, tying it on J.T. Snow’s two-run single and adding RBIs by Bell and Shawon Dunston.
Scott Spiezio’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 9-8, and Anderson tied it in the sixth, setting up the wild ending.
“That was a war,” Fullmer said. “I’ve never been a part of anything like that.”
Game 3 takes place Tuesday night in Pacific Bell Park, and it can’t get much better.
Or can it? Both teams have taken their best shots, and both have gotten up off the mat to fight again.
“These teams are just mirror images of each other,” Percival said. “Neither team will quit.”
