Slaying Giants, Swaying Hearts -- It’s Starting to Feel Like ’02

On an opening night just off Broadway, baseball’s giant pitcher stepped on its biggest stage.

Three innings later, fans were chanting for somebody named Small.

In a Bronx cathedral decorated with autumn greatness, baseball’s most historic team mounted a storied comeback.

Moments later, fans were chanting for nobodies named the Angels.

Talk about a Bronx bombshell.

The only thing more difficult than embarrassing Randy Johnson in October is surviving a blown five-run lead to the New York Yankees, but the Angels accomplished both Friday amid spitting rain and a single realization.

This may not be 2002, but the hair on the back of the neck sure is starting to curl like it.

The final tally was Angels 11, Yankees 7, common sense 0.

“An exciting game,” said the Angels’ Scot Shields, shaking his head. “Maybe a little too exciting.”

For the Yankees, it was a little too pivotal, the Angels taking a two-games-to-one lead in an American League division series they can clinch today.

“They are definitely on the ropes,” said the Angels’ Adam Kennedy.

This was a game of ropes, the Angels knocking Johnson through them, the Angels getting tangled up in them, then the Angels climbing on top of them to execute a final pinning leap on a Yankee team that is starting to look phony.

Johnson? He stunk.

Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield? They have a combined four hits in three games.

The Mariano Rivera-led bullpen? Only one Yankee reliever has an ERA less than 6.75.

Joe Torre? Outsmarted by Mike Scioscia again.

“Obviously, this is not what we expect of ourselves,” said Johnson.

And this is exactly what the Angels expect of themselves.

“For us, this is just how we are,” said the Angels’ Chone Figgins. “We’re not doing anything but playing Angel baseball.”

Just what is that? As in 2002, with each ensuing fall evening, the nation is learning.

On this night, it was Garret Anderson being a hero not for his home run, but for his hustle.

It was Figgins making a potential game-saving play for a second consecutive game ... in a different position.

It was Shields throwing 25 pitches in the sixth inning ... and skipping off the field after not allowing a run.

It was Steve Finley collecting his biggest RBI since last October’s grand slam ... on a squeeze bunt.

And, yes, it was some fans behind home plate in Yankee Stadium actually chanting, “Let’s Go Angels.”

They were shouted down in words that can’t be written here, but the point was made.

“The Angels come out aggressively and make you pay,” said Johnson.

He paid with his reputation, having been brought to the Bronx last winter for the specific purpose of winning games like this one.

He was paid $48 million for three years not for his Cy Young Awards, but for his World Series ring, and his ability to bring this team another one.

The entire Yankee series was built around him winning this game.

After five batters, he was cooked, Anderson taking him deep to right field for a three-run homer despite having a career .187 batting average against Johnson.

Two innings later, Bengie Molina hit a two-run homer against him, and by then, the problem could not only be seen, but heard.

Even the outs were hit hard.

By the time he walked off the mound in the fourth inning, the boos rumbled like a passing train.

“If I would have paid for a ticket tonight, I would have booed myself,” said Johnson. “I just didn’t get it done.”

Down 5-0, it seemed like the Yankees were done.

But the Angels’ decision to pitch Paul Byrd instead of the more playoff-tested Jarrod Washburn backfired, as Byrd gave most of the lead back, yielding four runs in less than four innings.

Brendan Donnelly gave the rest of it back, and the Yankees took a 6-5 advantage after five innings that would have been a lot worse if Figgins hadn’t saved two runs in the fourth with an inning-ending diving catch in center field.

As opposed to third base, where his diving stop saved Game 2.

“It was one of those chances I had to take,” Figgins said.

The Angels were still stunned from losing the lead, right?

“A little,” Kennedy said, shrugging. “But there was, like, a lot of time left, right?”

Four whole innings, during which the Angels scored six runs, highlighted by two more Anderson RBIs that paled in comparison to his high slide into Robinson Cano at second base that led to an error that led to another run.

“You just have to go in there with an intent to break up the play,” Anderson said.

They make it sound so easy.

Yet they walked off the Yankee Stadium field after midnight here caked in mud and grass stains and improbabilities.

Who knows where this journey will end? But this is where, and how, such journeys begin.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.