That Ringing in Their Ears Is an Opportunity Lost

Could you see the ring?

There it was, through the chill and mist and dull silence of a stunned crowd.

Did you see it shine? The Angels surely saw it. They had to see it.

A world championship ring, at their gloved fingertips, within their 42-year-long grasp.

The fifth inning, a 3-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants, their starter rolling, their bullpen rested, 15 outs from taking a three-games-to-one lead, putting the squeeze on this World Series.

The ring was there.

And then it was gone.

It slipped out of their hands and down to the wet grass and by the time they fell to their knees to retrieve it, the renewed fans stomping and hooting around them, the ring had disappeared.

It was kicked away by the Giants in a 4-3 victory Wednesday that changed everything.

This deal is even now. Jason Schmidt, today’s power pitcher who slowed the Angels in Game 1, can do real damage now. The Angels should be worried now.

Said the Giants’ Tim Worrell: “This was a momentum shift.”

Said the Angels’ John Lackey: “This was no big deal. We’ve been here before.”

Whom do we believe? The problem is, we have also been here before. And while we promised to never again talk about curses and jinxes, well, goodness....

Did you see that funk in the fifth inning? Did you see that Frankie in the eighth inning?

Everything that had gone right for the Angels suddenly didn’t. Their hands were soft, their minds were wandering, their kid fell of his bike.

Now it is the Giants who have those wide eyes and huge grins.

“You guys wouldn’t write us off, would you?” asked Giant second baseman Jeff Kent, laughing.

Now it was the Angels who were eating their postgame chicken and rice in silence on tiny tables surrounded by hundreds of reporters waiting for answers.

“Our mind-set is the same,” claimed Manager Mike Scioscia.

If this is indeed the case, then that is the only thing that Wednesday night didn’t change.

Start with the fifth inning. Start with the leadoff-hitting Kirk Rueter.

He banged a ball off home plate, it hopped out into the thick turf and died, but there was still time for catcher Bengie Molina to grab it and perhaps throw Rueter out at first.

Except Molina didn’t grab for the ball, Lackey grabbed for the ball and, falling away and off balance, he had no chance.

Molina, who later grounded into an inning-ending double play and had a passed ball that put the eventual winning run into scoring position, took the blame for the loss.

But on a night when none of them seemed able to stick their spikes on the Giant throats, there was enough blame to go around.

“Rueter’s hit was just a hang-with-’em play, nothing we could do about it,” said Lackey, kindly.

Next up, Kenny Lofton, who bunted a ball that rolled down the third-base line ... and rolled ... and rolled ... and was picked up by Troy Glaus in fair territory.

The ball appeared to roll into foul territory just before Glaus grabbed it, but it was fair when he touched it, so of course you wonder if he just hadn’t grabbed it a second sooner.

Glaus said it was not about baseball, but geography.

“Their line is a little lower than the dirt,” Glaus said. “It went foul. As I grabbed it, it rolled back down the line.”

What followed next was a collection of three line drives surrounded by an intentional walk, bringing in the three runs. To complete an inning of both physical and mental mistakes, Lackey was out of position while backing up Molina on a wild throw home by Tim Salmon.

When is the last time you’ve seen an Angel do that?

All the while, the bullpen didn’t move.

Benito Santiago’s score-tying single came on Lackey’s 86th pitch.

And then Ben Weber started throwing.

“There is no sense of urgency here,” Lackey said, and after that inning, you must believe him.

Understandably, the Angels probably figured that Francisco Rodriguez would eventually come into the game and freeze the Giants long enough for some guy in red to hit a game-winning homer.

Didn’t we all?

But that’s not what happened, because Rodriguez didn’t happen.

This was not K-Rod, this was Odd Rod.

Of 30 pitches in two innings, he threw barely a handful of fastballs.

In the eighth, he was beaten for a single by J.T. Snow on an 81-mph slider. Then he was beaten on a 97-mph fastball that didn’t move.

All the moving happened later, as the Giants sprinted on to the field in celebration while the Angels trudged away in wonder.

“All we talked before the game, all that mattered was that this was a must-win,” Worrell said. “It wasn’t really, but it was about as close as you could come.”

Considering giving the more experienced team three wins in a World Series is like allowing them to start their parade, that must-win mandate rests today with the Angels.

Not really, but as close as you can come.

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