ALCS GAME 5: HALOS IN HEAVEN KENNEDY'S BIG BLASTS LIFT ANGELS TO SERIES ANGELS 13, MINNESOTA 5.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Failure had been so enduring for the Angels' franchise that some have wondered whether it was cursed, if maybe the rumor that the ballpark was built on an ancient Indian burial ground was true.

But after 42 years of futility, disappointment and even tragedy, 42 years after Gene Autry went to the owners' meetings to buy radio broadcasting rights and ended up buying the team, the Angels are in.

Adam Kennedy hit three home runs, including a three-run blast that sparked a 10-run seventh inning, propelling the Angels to a 13-5 victory over the Minnesota Twins in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series and putting them in the World Series for the first time.

The Angels became the fifth team ever and the first since 1983 to lose the first game of a best-of-seven series and win the next four.

Kennedy, who was named the ALCS MVP, will wait with the rest of his teammates until Saturday, when they'll play Game 1 of the World Series at Edison Field against either the San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals.

The Angels previously had played six games in their history with a chance to advance to the World Series, and lost all six - three to Milwaukee in 1982 and three to Boston in 1986. Seven was the Angels' lucky number.

``Ask anybody and everyone talks about playing in your back yard as a kid, dreaming of playing in the World Series, saying to yourself, `World Series, bases loaded, down by three, ...'' Angels center fielder Darin Erstad said. ``Now we'll get to live that.''

For a while, it looked as though the Angels would have to make another trip to Minnesota for Game 6 and potentially a Game 7.

They fell behind 2-0 after two innings but got two solo homers by Kennedy and one from Scott Spiezio off Twins starter Joe Mays to forge a 3-2 lead after five innings. Given a lead, Angels starter Kevin Appier (5 1/3 innings, two runs, five hits) left the game in the capable hands of the bullpen.

The Angels wasted a chance to increase their lead in the sixth, going scoreless in the inning despite putting runners on first and third with nobody out. The Twins took advantage of the blown opportunity, scoring three runs in the top of the seventh off Brendan Donnelly and Francisco Rodriguez (all three charged to Donnelly).

Down 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh, the Angels put together an inning that will go down among the most productive in major-league postseason history: 10 runs, 10 hits and a curse lifted.

It took 73 years for a team to match the 10 hits in a postseason inning put up by the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1929 World Series. But now the Angels have done it twice in a span of eight days, also getting 10 hits in the fifth inning of their series-clinching victory over the New York Yankees on Oct. 5.

``I was screaming all inning and the only thing I could get out was, `Wow!' '' said Angels pitcher Jarrod Washburn, who will start Game 1 of the World Series.

The key to the inning was Kennedy's three-run homer off Johan Santana that gave the Angels a 6-5 lead, but it nearly didn't happen. After Spiezio and Bengie Molina both singled to begin the inning, Scioscia asked Kennedy to bunt the runners over even though Kennedy had homered in his first two at-bats.

Kennedy fouled off the first bunt attempt before Scioscia took the bunt off. On an 0-2 pitch, Kennedy made history, becoming the fifth player to hit three homers in a postseason game. Babe Ruth (1926, '28), Bob Robertson (1971), Reggie Jackson (1977) and George Brett (1978) are the others.

``My first reaction was that it didn't happen,'' Erstad said of watching Kennedy's ball sail into the bleachers. ``I had to get on deck to get myself ready and I nearly passed out.''

The onslaught continued from there and it didn't stop until the Angels had sent 15 batters to to plate. Naturally, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire came away impressed with the Angels.

``When the Oakland A's ran off 20 games in a row and when they got finished with their 20-game streak and these guys (Angels) were, what, two games back, I knew that these guys were for real,'' Gardenhire said. ``That's a great baseball team right there. You compare them to all the other lions and tigers in this game, they've got big hearts, they never stop playing.''

Not this year, not until the last out of the World Series.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SEVENTH HEAVEN

The Angels advance to their first World Series with a 13-5 rout of Minnesota behind a record 10-run seventh inning

(2) Tim Salmon, who has been with the Angels since 1992, holds up the ALCS trophy for the fans.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) WORLD SERIES

(2) BIG HITTERS

(3) ANGELS vs. MINNESOTA

AL Championship Series: Angels win best-of-seven series 4-1