Surely that monkey business was just a coincidence. He's just a marketing gimmick, a video star and a plush toy - right?
Not to the fans who watched it happen Thursday night in the latest improbability of an American League Championship Series game. Not to the Yankees, who were three innings away from tickets to the World Series before the Angels snatched them away with a 7-6 comeback victory that cut New York's edge to 3-2.
"Anything is possible, man," Angels center fielder Torii Hunter said. "Baseball is a crazy game, man. You see some crazy things. Every time you come to the game, you've probably been to 1,000 games, and you see something different every year."
Kendry Morales drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the seventh inning as the Angels responded to the Yankees' six-run comeback moments earlier with a three-run rally of their own, each hit more improbable than the last.
When closer Brian Fuentes retired Nick Swisher on a bases-loaded, full-count popup for the final, perilous out, the Angels had held on - and evoked the faintest echoes of the Yankees' last trip to this stage of the postseason, which ended in their unprecedented four-game flameout in 2004.
Game 6 is Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, with Andy Pettitte facing Los Angeles' Joe Saunders. Also in the forecast: a huge rainstorm.
