Angels in the outfield

By Ben Walker
The Associated Press

ANAHEIM, Calif. - This is definitely movie material, and the stars are the never-say-die Anaheim Angels.

They came out of nowhere to reach their first World Series, rallying past every team in their way.

Their rookie pitcher wins Game 7.

And the best hitter in the world watches from the losers' dugout, knowing he was only six outs away from winning the only title he has ever wanted the day before.

Anaheim pitcher John Lackey, leftfielder Garret Anderson and the rest of the Angels made it all come true, beating Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants 4-1 Sunday night for the franchise's first championship in 42 years.

Plus the most amazing thing, the Angels did not even need to rely on their Rally Monkey.

Instead, the highest-scoring Series in history came down to pitching. Behind Lackey and the bullpen, Anaheim had too much to allow the Giants to win baseball's first all wild-card World Series.

Lackey was not even with the Angels, stuck in Triple-A, when they went 6-14 for the worst start in team history this season. But with both staffs worn down, the 24-year-old right-handed pitcher gave Anaheim exactly what it needed with five innings of one-run ball.

A day after it blew a 5-0 lead in the seventh inning, San Francisco never got closer than a 1-0 lead in the second toward winning its first title. Bonds went 1-for-3 with a walk to close out one of the most dominant Series performances ever, yet it was not enough.

Anderson hit a three-run double off San Francisco pitcher Livan Hernandez in the third for a 4-1 lead. The monkey mascot made a brief, early appearance on the video board to celebrate the moment, then sat back and let the sellout crowd of 44,598 bang their ThunderStix like crazy.

However, the crowd might have went a little too crazy after Anderson’s line drive into the right-corner cleared the bases.

As San Francisco outfielder Reggie Sanders tried to corral the ball along the low wall, an Anaheim fan got into the act, bopping Sanders on the back with a pair of red ThunderStix. There was no interference called, although two security guards were soon standing in the area when Hernandez, who lost for the second time in the Series, was pulled.

From there, Anaheim pitchers Brendan Donnelly, Francisco Rodriguez and Troy Percival closed it for Anaheim. Percival escaped a two-on, one-out jam for his third save of the Series.

On the other side, Hernandez seemed uncomfortable from the start, constantly pawing at the mound while trying to find his control. He looked nothing like the Most Valuable Player of the 1997 World Series for Florida and instead resembled the pitcher who tied for the NL lead in losses this season, which he did with 16.