Kennedy Builds His Own Kind of Camelot as MVP

Moments before the defining moment of his career, Adam Kennedy was still searching for definition.

Seventh inning, left-hander Johan Santana on the mound for the Minnesota Twins, Kennedy wandered behind the dugout and into the underground batting cages.

There stood platoon-mate Benji Gil, taking his hacks.

“You batting for me?” he asked Gil.

Even after hitting two home runs in his first two plate appearances, Kennedy didn’t believe.

Even after the trailing Angels put their first two hitters on base against Santana and it was time for him to leave the on-deck circle, Kennedy wasn’t certain.

“I’m never really sure,” he said, shrugging.

Today, he knows. Today, all of a monkey-tied and balloon-burned Orange County knows.

Unusually, Kennedy batted.

Stunningly, after failing to bunt the ball four feet, he clobbered it 400 feet.

Incredibly, a guy not even considered versatile enough to play every day will now play forever in the record books.

Babe Ruth, George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Bob Robertson and Adam Kennedy.

They are the only players to hit three homers in a postseason game, but only Kennedy’s shots were powerful enough to haul 41 years of misery into a World Series.

His final three-run blast in Game 5 Sunday gave the Angels the lead for good in a 13-5 clinching victory over the Twins in the American League championship series.

As the ball sailed over the right-center field fence, Edison Field’s red tide crashed while first-base coach Alfredo Griffin threw up his hands and nearly collapsed.

“I thought, this can’t be happening, this is not real,” Griffin said.

What’s not to believe?

A third home run by someone who was initially supposed to bunt?

A third home run by a left-handed hitter against a left-handed pitcher who had retired him all seven of the previous times they had dueled?

Maybe it was the 0-and-2 count that made Griffin feel faint.

Or maybe it was something about a guy being voted ALCS most valuable player even though he was benched for one of the five games.

To add to the intrigue, the first person to hug Kennedy when he reached the dugout was Gil, a right-handed hitter who usually replaces him against left-handers.

To complete the amazement, a guy who just hit three home runs in a postseason game is not sure if he’ll start the next one.

OK, Mike Scioscia, what if your opponent in the World Series opener starts a left-hander?

“We’ll talk about that,” said Scioscia with a grin.

Maybe by then, Kennedy’s fixed stare and frozen grin will thaw.

While most of the other Angels spent their postgame celebration in a raucous, weeping, tequila-swigging delirium, Kennedy spent it in shock.

When his teammates returned to the field to thank the fans, Kennedy remained in the clubhouse, initially to receive his MVP trophy, but later because he just didn’t know where to go.

To hit nearly half as many homers in one postseason game as you did in the regular season -- seven -- is understandably confusing.

“This is surreal,” he said quietly while riding an elevator to the news conference.

For the obscure player who symbolizes this unknown team, there was no better word.

Kennedy was traded here from the St. Louis Cardinals for cocky Jim Edmonds. He doesn’t talk much. He doesn’t play every day because the club is not convinced he can hit left-handers. He is not happy, but he doesn’t complain.

“I struggled with it last year, but I realized, that doesn’t work,” said this Riverside-reared son of a coach. “Now, I come ready to play every day and just work harder if I don’t.”

Sometimes he works too hard. Like Sunday morning, when he struggled so much during pregame work that he finally walked out of the batting cage and quit.

“You can see his mind working, and sometimes it works too much,” batting coach Mickey Hatcher said.

Coming to the plate to lead off the third inning, hitless in his previous nine at-bats, Kennedy approached Hatcher with a request.

The Angels have repeatedly urged him to be more patient at the plate when leading off an inning, but, just this once, couldn’t he please ... ?

Said Hatcher: “He asked, ‘Can I swing at the first pitch?’ ”

Said Kennedy: “Mickey said, ‘If you feel like it, do it.’ ... And I felt like it.”

First pitch, home run to right.

Two innings later, home run to right-center.

“I grabbed him in the dugout and said, ‘Bro, I’ve seen thousands of guys hit two home runs,’ ” Gil said. “But if you can hit three, man, that’s really special.”

But after Scott Spiezio and Bengie Molina singled to start the seventh inning, with the Angels trailing, 5-3, who would’ve thought that Kennedy would get a chance?

Turns out, Scioscia liked Kennedy in a bunt situation, and he liked the sound of his line-drive out against Santana on Friday night.

“When he swings the bat well, he can hit anybody,” Scioscia said.

So the bunt attempt came first. But when it was fouled off, Scioscia surprised everyone again by taking off the sign.

Said Sciosica: “They were pitching for a bunt. We thought it was good to let Adam turn it loose.”

Said Spiezio: “I got to give him huge credit to take that bunt off. He thought Adam’s concentration would go up after missing the first one.”

It was a matter of a manager knowing his players, even if that player is sometimes still unsure.

Two foul balls later, when he knocked a hanging slider out of the yard, the usually stoic Kennedy shouted in surprise.

When Gil found him in the middle of the champagne-splattered clubhouse, they hugged for what seemed like forever.

“I could see it in him today,” Gil said. “Earlier, when he asked me if I was hitting for him, I said, ‘I don’t know, bro. But I hope not.’ ”

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.