Anaheim Thrills

For Angel fans, these are the saddest of possible words. One win away.

In 1982, and again in 1986, the Angels were one win away from the World Series. Each time, the Angels had three chances to win that one game. Each time, the Angels failed.

The Angels are one win away, again, one win from winning a postseason series for the first time in the 42-year history of the franchise, this time with a resilient team for which history is no albatross. The Angels are one win away, again, with two chances to advance to the American League championship series.

And the Angels are one win away from evicting the team that owns October from the playoffs. In the most spectacular comeback in franchise history, one that will be retold for the ages, the Angels spotted the New York Yankees a 6-1 lead, then rode a makeshift bullpen and a relentless offense to a 9-6 victory Friday.

With Darin Erstad driving home the winning run in the eighth inning, and Tim Salmon driving in four runs, the Angels took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five division series. The Angels send ace Jarrod Washburn to the mound today, in a quest to clinch at home.

The game was a nine-inning thrill ride for the players and for a deafening crowd of 45,072, the largest in Edison Field history. The noise never ceased from the red sea, even after the game ended, with the fans chanting “Let’s go Angels!” down the exit ramps and into the parking lot.

“I’ve got to somehow come down,” Salmon said, “so I can go to sleep.”

This just doesn’t happen. The Yankees had not blown a bigger lead in the postseason since 1956, to the Brooklyn Dodgers, five years before the Angels were born.

The Angels got 16 of their 27 outs from three relievers who did not open the season in their bullpen. John Lackey, who pitched three shutout innings in his first relief appearance in either the major or minor leagues, opened the season at triple A. Scott Schoeneweis, who did what he could not in Game 1 by retiring Jason Giambi, opened the season in the starting rotation.

And Francisco Rodriguez, the wonder child with the 95-mph fastball, the kid who threw his first major league pitch 17 days ago, the winning pitcher in both Angel victories, opened the season at double A. Rodriguez, 20, faced six batters and retired all six, striking out four.

“We should all be so fortunate as to have that stuff and that makeup,” closer Troy Percival said.

“The story was our bullpen,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Those guys did a great job against an incredible offensive team.”

That they did, after starter Ramon Ortiz put the Angels in that 6-1 hole by losing his acquaintance with home plate. Lackey relieved Ortiz in the third inning, got the last out and returned to the dugout, where pitching coach Bud Black told him that, if he could hold the score right there, the Angels would win, 9-6.

Really.

“You try to say things in the dugout to give guys faith,” Black said, almost sheepishly.

The team believed, of course. This is the first team in major league history to lose 14 of its first 20 games and come back to make the playoffs. The Rally Monkey lives here, and scoff at your own peril.

The Angels have mounted bigger comebacks, yes, but never on the October stage. But Salmon doubled home two in the third inning, and the Angels trailed, 6-3. Adam Kennedy, who came within a triple of hitting for the cycle, homered in the fourth.

In the sixth, Kennedy contributed a sacrifice fly, and the Angels trailed, 6-5. In the seventh, Scott Spiezio singled home the tying run.

In the eighth, Erstad doubled home Kennedy with the go-ahead run. Salmon followed by punctuating the comeback with a two-run homer--Angels 9, Yankees 6, just as Black called it--and the usually reserved outfielder pumped his fist as he rounded first base.

“I had goose bumps,” Salmon said. “You would have thought it was the seventh game of the World Series from listening to our crowd.... There’s a lot of years of frustration they’re letting out, and it’s awesome.”

After the unsung and unusual bullpen did its job, Percival trotted in to do his usual job, retiring the Yankees in order in the ninth. The Yankees got one hit after the third inning and none after the sixth.

As Giambi flied out for the final out, as the ball settled harmlessly into the glove of left fielder Garret Anderson, Percival pumped his fist so high he nearly touched the sky.

The Angels rushed the mound to hug, then quickly shifted into handshake mode, well aware that one more win will not come easily, certainly not against a Yankee team that erased a two-games-to-none deficit against Oakland in last year’s division series.

“It’s not over till it’s over, to use a cliche from the other side,” Schoeneweis said. “But we’ve got the guy pitching that we want.”

Said Washburn: “Biggest game of my life, so far. Hopefully, there will be bigger ones.”

One win away.

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Full coverage of the Angel-Yankee series, including photo galleries and postgame audio, can be found at latimes.com/angels.

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The Comeback

It looked like a long night for the Angels when starting pitcher Ramon Ortiz struggled from the outset while the Yankees took a 6-1 lead in the top of the third. But Anaheim scored in five of the next six innings to rally for an improbable 9-6 victory. A look at how the Angels did it:

*--* THIRD INNING * With one out and runners on first and second, Tim Salmon doubled to left, scoring Adam Kennedy and Darin Erstad Yankees 6, Angels 3 FOURTH INNING * With two out and the bases empty, Kennedy homered to right Yankees 6, Angels 4 SIXTH INNING * With one out and runners on second and third, Kennedy flied to left, Brad Fullmer scoring Yankees 6, Angels 5 SEVENTH INNING * With two out and runners on first and second, Scott Spiezio singled to center, scoring Garret Anderson Angels 6, Yankees 6 EIGHTH INNING * With one out and a man on third, Erstad doubled to right, scoring Kennedy. Salmon homered to left Angels 9, Yankees 6

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Comeback Kids

A lack of playoff experience before this American League division series against the New York Yankees hasn’t fazed the Angels, who have overcome deficits in all three games:

*--* Angels’ Situation Angels’ Final Comeback GAME 1 Trailing, 3-1, after fourth inning Tied score, 3-3, on Garret Anderson’s two-run double in the fifth Trailing, 4-3, after fifth inning Took lead, Lost, 8-5 5-4, on solo home runs by Troy Glaus in the sixth and eighth GAME 2 Trailing, 5-4, after sixth inning Took lead, Won, 8-6 7-5, in eighth inning on consecutive home runs by Anderson and Glaus and sacrifice fly by Adam Kennedy GAME 3 Trailing, 6-1, in third inning Took lead, Won, 9-6 9-6, in eighth inning. Came back on two-run double by Tim Salmon in the third, solo home run by Kennedy in the fourth, sacrifice fly by Kennedy in the sixth, RBI single by Scott Spiezio in the seventh, RBI double by Darin Erstad and two-run homer by Salmon in the eighth

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