An October Surprise With Real Fireworks

October baseball returned to Fantasyland Friday, but there was nothing Mickey Mouse about it.

The silly monkey wasn’t the story. The balloon noisemakers weren’t an issue. The beach balls bounced flat.

Through Edison Field’s fireworks and funky videos, an old-fashioned baseball team appeared.

They are the Angels, and everything anyone once believed about them is wrong.

They are not a Main Street novelty. They are not a Happy Meal trinket.

They are not a first-round thrill ride that the New York Yankees must grudgingly endure on their way to another championship.

After three games of the American League division series, the Angels are playing more traditionally than baseball’s most traditional team.

They are showing more postseason toughness than baseball’s postseason giants.

They are doing the little things better, and the big things more dramatically, and today are one win from knocking the Yankees back home into chaos after a 9-6 comeback victory.

Those poor Yankees. They must feel like the unluckiest team on the face of the earth.

“Every night, a new thrill,” Tim Salmon said late Friday, shaking his head along with most of the baseball world. “I didn’t think anything could top the first two games of the series, but then, this.... “

This, a comeback from a 6-1 deficit against a pitcher, Mike Mussina, who had not allowed an earned run in his previous 27 innings.

This, a comeback in a game in which Ramon Ortiz never showed up and Garret Anderson quit running.

This, a two-out homer by Adam Kennedy that pulled them close, a two-out bloop by Scott Spiezio that tied it.

And, finally, this, a bloop and a bunt and a two-strike Darin Erstad line drive to win it.

Edison Field’s sea of red rocked and pounded and screamed. The skies cackled with fireworks. Center field splashed with geysers.

And none of that was as good as the baseball.

None of that was as good as my favorite two at-bats, which were the Angels’ first two at-bats, which meant nothing and everything.

Down, 3-0, after an awful top of the first inning, David Eckstein and Erstad stepped in against Mussina and immediately let him know that they were not going to panic.

Eckstein fouled out after a six-pitch at-bat that included two other foul balls.

Erstad flied out at another six-pitch at-bat that included two more foul balls.

Two outs. But one enduring message. The Yankees were in for a long night. If they were going to win this fight, they would have to go nine rounds without a stool.

“They have great pitchers, so we have told ourselves, we will make the outs tough,” Eckstein said. “Every pitch, we will try to get to the next pitch.”

And it doesn’t matter what kind of pitch. And it doesn’t matter what kind of hit.

The Angels are winning this match-play event not because of their pretty drives or perfect putts, but because they are relentless out of the rough. Hacking and chopping, hole after hole, finally reaching the green as their opponents, who have watched all this with incredulity, miss two-footers out of exhaustion.

My favorite RBI Friday wasn’t their last one, but their first one.

Second inning, runners on second and third, Spiezio stepped to the plate wanting to be a hero.

“Trying to hit a grounder to score two runs,” he said.

But Mussina throws strike one, then a ball, then Spiezio fouls off two more pitches and comes to a realization shared by seemingly every Angel.

“I realized, forget the two runs, forget the big hit, just get the ball down and score one,” he said. “I knew I would be making an out. But that didn’t matter anymore.”

Sure enough, instead of striking out with a big hack, Spiezio shortened his swing and hit a little grounder to first base. It was an out. But it scored a run. It worked.

“That’s our team, no big egos, nobody getting a lot of recognition, everybody understanding,” said Spiezio. “When you’re only worried about getting the run in, it’s amazing how many times you find a hole.”

Sort of like that hole Spiezio found with his game-tying bloop over the outstretched arms of second baseman Alfonso Soriano in the seventh inning.

On a low full-count fastball.

When he was hitless in 12 at-bats against Yankee left-hander Mike Stanton at the time.

“I think these guys have figured out, this is the way to win,” said batting coach Mickey Hatcher. “This is the way to play the game.”

Perhaps making this the most important stat: The Yankees threw only two fewer pitches than the Angels--155-153--even though the Angel pitchers threw one more inning.

And now comes today, a chance to win the series without returning to the uncertainty of New York.

Somebody should first talk to Anderson. His slow jog out of the box on a third-inning grounder that was bobbled by Soriano--who threw him out by a whisker-- may have cost the Angels a prolonged rally.

Somebody should also talk to Ortiz, who tried to win Friday’s game by striking out 27 Yankees in the first three innings.

But on a team with the demeanor of Mike Scioscia and the fire of Mickey Hatcher, everything else is working.

Maybe even the Rally Monkey, but I’m not sure. He did come out Friday, right? When? I don’t remember. I couldn’t care less.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at: [email protected]