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BOB COSTAS:
If Game 1 announced the Anaheim Angels to the baseball world, Game 2 stunned it. A World Series contest that featured 27 runs, 32 hits, eight home runs, and a finish that left forty-four thousand at Oracle Park staring in disbelief — and somehow, through all of that chaos, Anaheim walks away again.
The Angels defeat the Giants 14–13, taking a commanding two-games-to-none lead in this World Series, and they do it in a fashion that defies every conventional October script.
JOE MORGAN:
Bob, this was one of those games where you throw the book out the window. Pitching? Gone. Matchups? Gone. It turned into survival baseball, and Anaheim survived better.
The Giants did almost everything right offensively. Bill Valenzuela goes five-for-five, two home runs, a double — that’s one of the greatest hitting performances you’ll ever see in a World Series game. And it still wasn’t enough.
COSTAS:
San Francisco led 8–4 after four innings. They led again later. Every time it looked as though momentum had swung decisively in their favor, Anaheim found another response. Triples from Juan Garcia, line drives from Asllan Marku, constant pressure from Cesar Guzman — it was relentless.
But the defining moment arrived in the eighth inning.
MORGAN:
That’s when Benito Aguilar steps up. Two men on, one out, and he gets a pitch he can handle. He doesn’t miss it. Three-run home run, and just like that, the Angels go from trailing to leading.
That’s a big-league swing in the biggest moment. And Bob, that’s what great teams do — they don’t panic, they wait for their pitch.
COSTAS:
Even after that, the Giants were not finished. They continued to fight, scratching and clawing to the final out. But Anaheim’s bullpen — battered though it was — held just enough. When the last Giant was retired, it felt less like the end of a game and more like the end of a marathon.
This was not clean. It was not elegant. But it was decisive.
MORGAN:
And here’s the part that worries San Francisco. You score thirteen runs. Your designated hitter has one of the greatest games in World Series history. You still lose. That’s deflating.
Meanwhile, Anaheim heads home up 2–0, having already done the two hardest things in a World Series: win on the road twice.
COSTAS:
So the Angels leave San Francisco with control of the series and with a sense of inevitability beginning to form. The Giants will tell you the series hasn’t started yet — and technically, they’re right.
But psychologically? Anaheim has seized something far more valuable than home-field advantage.
Game 3 awaits in Southern California, and suddenly, this World Series has taken on a very steep angle for San Francisco.