Series enters another dimension
Gary Peterson
NBCSports.com contributor
October 27, 2002
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Some World Series are built for greatness. An all-New York City World Series, for example. A Yankees-Dodgers World Series. Any World Series involving the Red Sox, because you just know the collective psyche of New England is going to take another horrific hit.
Other World Series kind of grow on you. The best are the ones you remember because of how they ended. Welcome to one of those.
The Anaheim Angels wound up in the land of the special World Series on Saturday, dragging the San Francisco Giants kicking and screaming behind them. The 2002 World Series started out good, got better during three games in San Francisco and wound up in the land of Oz Saturday night.
Great teams? Maybe, maybe not. But great baseball, definitely. Saturday, a series of backs and forths, breakaways and comebacks went paranormal. Leading by five runs with eight outs to go, the Giants couldn't close the deal. Trailing by five runs with only eight outs to go, the Angels wouldn't go away.
Game 7 is today. This series deserves nothing less.
"I can go back to the Kirk Gibson game in '88," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, when asked if he'd seen anything like the final three innings of Game 6. Scioscia was the Dodgers catcher the night Gibson homered off Dennis Eckersley to beat the A's. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, until Saturday.
"I think there was about as much electricity in (Dodger) Stadium as there ever was," Scioscia said. "I think tonight surpassed that."
The Giants wouldn't admit thinking they had it won. The Angels wouldn't admit thinking they had lost. And maybe they're telling the truth.
But for 6 1/3 innings, every little thing went the Giants way. Giants starter Russ Ortiz breezed through the Anaheim lineup. The Angels, so feisty and relentless, had two hits through five innings, that an infield single by Tim Salmon.
Angels starter Kevin Appier was plenty good, too, until the fifth. Then Shawon Dunston, the Giants' DH, the guy manager Dusty Baker has kept playing despite statistical evidence that suggests Dunston is finished, hit a two-run homer.
Before the inning was over the Giants had scored another run. When Barry Bonds led off the sixth with a booming home run to right field, the Giants led 4-0 and the game had all the earmarks of a See You Later. A Bonds home run to seal the deal. What could be more perfect?
The Giants even tacked on a fifth run in the seventh, not that they were going to need it.
"You know, I thought if we could get some hits strung together, we were going to get back in the game," Scioscia said. "I didn't know it was going to happen as quickly as it did."
The Angels put two runners on with one out in the seventh, and Baker relieved Ortiz with Felix Rodriguez. That set up a ferocious battle between Rodriguez and Angels first baseman Scott Spiezio, an eight-pitch at-bat that featured four foul balls.
On the eighth pitch, with the count 3-2, Spiezio hit a towering drive down the right field line.
"I didn't know it was gone when I hit it," Spiezio said. "I was praying. I was saying, 'God, please just get over the fence.' It seemed like it took forever."
It was worth the wait. The ball cleared the wall, giving the Angels wing and evoking memories of every clutch swinger the World Series has ever known -- Bernie Carbo, Carlton Fisk, Jim Leyritz, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, Derek Jeter.
The Angels scored three in the seventh to get back in it, and three more in the eighth to win, evoking memories of every ecstatic beneficiary of a moment of unthinkable triumph (Ray Knight, Bill Mazeroski, Bobby Richardson, Joe Carter) and every unfortunate victim of such a moment (Ralph Terry, Bill Buckner, Mitch Williams).
The Angles pounded each other in celebration afterward. The Giants fled their dugout as if it were on fire. It was the fourth one-run game of the series.
How's that for a prelude to Game 7?
"Tonight was pretty amazing," Spiezio said. "You don't want to dwell on it, but it was so amazing that you have to sit back and say, 'Wow, that was incredible.' I think it's going to help us, give us a lot of confidence no matter what happens tomorrow. Until that last out is made, we'll never give up."
"One thing about this club," Baker said, "(it) just never comes easy and we never do it easy. I mean, we knew it was going to be a tough day today. Here we are, going to a Game 7."
It was a bad night for perspective and cooler heads. Giants second baseman Jeff Kent came as close as anybody.
"We just got beat by a good ballclub," Kent said. "(We will) deal with it, come back here and give you some more entertainment tomorrow night."
We would expect nothing less.
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NBCSports.com contributor Gary Peterson is a columnist for the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times. |
