ThE evil empire falls

Persistent Angels hold off Yanks in 10
Rookie Budde's second career hit drives in game-winning run
By Larry Santana / MLB.com
• Figgins' RBI single 400K• Mathis' three-run double 400K• Budde wins it • Mathis' three-run double • Angels notes: Kendrick returns from DLANAHEIM -- Equal parts cheer, jeer and pandemonium, Angel Stadium was awash in a cacophony of contradiction.
Derogatory chants aimed at the Yankees were supplanted by deafening swirls of praise for those same Yankees -- all in the same at-bat, sometimes on consecutive pitches.

But in the end, a Ryan Budde walk-off double to right field proved the power of the Rally Monkey superior to the mystique of the boys from the Bronx Zoo as the Angels pulled out a thrilling 7-6, come-from-behind win over the Yankees in 10 innings on Monday night.

The contest had all the trimmings of a soap opera-infused highlight reel, with the Boogie-Down's brightest bringing Broadway to Hollywood: Offensive pendulum swings that swayed from deficit to lead to deficit again, an agitated manager ejected on the merits of a highly questionable call and audible disdain cascading from the stands by fans of both clubs.
And this was only the series opener. One can only imagine what's in store over the next two nights.

"It was 50-50," Budde said of the fan differential. "There were Yankees fans everywhere. It was the same thing when Boston was here. It seems like they've got more fans here than we do. It was pretty loud."

But the commotion did little to stop Budde -- inserted in the ninth inning to catch in place of starter Jeff Mathis -- from recording his first Major League RBI.
With one out in the 10th and the score tied at 6, Howie Kendrick -- activated prior to the game after spending six weeks on the disabled list with a broken left index finger -- occupied the bag at second after smoking a ground-rule double to right. He watched as Budde stepped to the plate.

"I was just trying to get a base hit," Budde said. "Mickey Hatcher, our hitting coach, told me before that at-bat if [Casey Kotchman] got on, to bunt him over. If there's two outs, hit a home run."

Kotchman was retired on strikes to start the inning. No need for the bunt. Kendrick's base knock prevented the two-out scenario. No need for the home run, either. But a walk-off double to right? Why not?

"It was great," Budde said of the walk-off. "It was a dream come true. It was just -- wow. To do it against the Yankees and get an opportunity to come in at the end of the ballgame trying to do something, it was awesome."

Mathis, the man Budde replaced after Maicer Izturis was summoned to pinch-hit for him in the eighth, put the Angels on the board in with a three-run double in the second.
After Alex Rodriguez followed a Derek Jeter double with an RBI single in the first to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead, Mathis' extra-base hit put the Halos up, 3-1.

Hideki Matsui trimmed the Los Angeles lead to 3-2, scoring from third on a Jorge Posada groundout after hitting a laser to center field for a triple.

A two-run shot by Rodriguez, deposited in the left-field stands in the sixth off reliever Chris Bootcheck, pushed the New York advantage to 4-2, but RBI singles from Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera incited a three-run seventh that gave the Halos the lead again, putting them up, 6-4.

Not to be outdone by his All-Star third baseman's three-hit, three-RBI performance, Posada rocketed a ball deep into the right-field stands in the eighth that looked as if it would hover eternally.
Score tied at 6.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia was tossed in the bottom of the eighth after contesting a check-swing by Reggie Willits that ended the inning. After a heated debate in which Scioscia stalked third-base umpire Dan Iassogna up and down the third-base line, the less-than-enthused manger was forced to watch the game from the clubhouse. The ejection was his third of the season and the 19th of his career.

"I just went like that," Scioscia said, lifting his arms at his sides to demonstrate. "I just went like that, and he threw me out of the game, but whatever. In real time, no way. [The swing] wasn't close. You look at any swing in slow motion, and it's close. In real time, there's no way that was a swing. No way."

Airtight relief from New York's Mariano Rivera and Los Angeles' Francisco Rodriguez forced an extra inning that provided Budde's chance at heroism.
But Scioscia wasn't on the field to see it.

"It's never a good feeling when you have a game and you've got to watch it on TV, but it's easier watching a win than a loss," he said.

Larry Santana is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.