Anderson Is a Clutch Guy for Angels in Win

A crowd of 41,260 in Edison Field was going wild Sunday night, with all those transplanted New Yorkers and Yankee bandwagon passengers drowning out the Angel fans.

The score was tied in the 10th inning, the winning run was at second base, one of baseball’s best left-handed relief specialists was on the mound, and all Angel left fielder Garret Anderson heard at the plate was silence.

“I felt calm in that situation,” Anderson said. “There’s no pressure on me. The pressure is on the guy on the mound. He’s supposed to get me out. That’s what’s fun about those situations, why I look forward to them.”

And why Anderson has thrived on them all year. Anderson lined a double to right off Mike Stanton for his 100th run batted in of the season to lift the Angels to a dramatic 7-6 victory over the Yankees, keeping the Angels within six games of Oakland in the American League wild-card race.

Trailing, 6-4, going into the bottom of the eighth, the Angels rallied off the three best relievers--Ramiro Mendoza, Mariano Rivera and Stanton--in one of baseball’s best bullpens in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, with David Eckstein’s ninth-inning RBI single sending the game to extra innings.

Stanton hit Darin Erstad with a pitch to open the 10th, Erstad took second on a wild pitch, and Anderson lined a 2-and-2 pitch to right for his 25th RBI this month, further solidifying his status as one of the league’s top run producers and evoking memories of a Hall of Famer for Angel Manager Scioscia.

“To be a good RBI guy you have to use all fields, because if you don’t, you have too many holes in those pressure situations,” Scioscia said. “The best guy I saw like that was former Reds’ first baseman Tony Perez. His holes were the size of acorns because he could shorten his swing, use all fields, and he had great hands.

“That’s who Garret reminds me of. He’s gaining discipline, and he’s not missing pitches in RBI situations. He hits left-handers well (.295 average), and against the tough pitchers, he’s going to put the ball in play. ... There’s no doubt he’s our most valuable player this season.”

The Angels couldn’t have faced a tougher pitcher in the ninth, but down to their last out with no one on base, they staged an improbable rally off Rivera, who leads the majors with 40 saves.

After Troy Glaus’ fly ball sent center fielder Bernie Williams to the wall for the second out, Jorge Fabregas, who entered the game in the eighth and was hitting .218, dropped a double inside the right-field line.

Eckstein then lined Rivera’s first pitch into right-center for an RBI single, a 6-6 tie and Rivera’s sixth blown save of the season.

“He’s one of the best ever, if not the best ever,” Erstad said of Rivera. “I guess he’s human. I don’t know, sometimes you don’t think so.”

The Yankees had snapped a 4-4 tie with single runs in the seventh and eighth, scoring on Shane Spencer’s RBI single--his fourth RBI of the game--in the seventh and Paul O’Neill’s bases-loaded walk off Angel left-hander Mike Holtz in the eighth to make the score 6-4.

The Angels pulled within 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth when Anderson doubled to left-center with two out off Mendoza and Scott Spiezio blooped an RBI single to left-center off Rivera.

Anderson and Spiezio also keyed a three-run first off Yankee starter Orlando Hernandez, with Anderson doubling in a run and Spiezio smashing a two-run homer to right.

The Yankees countered with a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 4-3 lead, as Spencer smoked a two-run homer to center off Angel starter Scott Schoeneweis in the fourth and Derek Jeter (RBI single) and Spencer (sacrifice fly) knocked in runs in the fifth.

A huge gamble by Scioscia paid off in the bottom of the fifth, and that enabled the Angels to tie the score. Shawn Wooten opened with a single, and Scioscia sent the lead-footed utility player on a hit-and-run play with Eckstein at the plate.

Eckstein got enough wood on a difficult high-and-tight pitch to flare a single to right, sending Wooten to third. Had Eckstein swung and missed, Wooten surely would have been thrown out at second.

Instead, Wooten scored on Palmeiro’s sacrifice fly to deep center to make the score 4-4.

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AL WILD-CARD RACE

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W L GB Oakland 75 56 -- Boston 71 58 3 Minnesota 69 62 6 ANGELS 68 63 7 Chicago 65 64 9

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