HEARTWARMING STORY OF KING FISH AND VULTURE.

Byline: BOB KEISSER

ANAHEIM - If the Angels go on to win the 2002 World Series, thousands of fans will someday plop their kids and grandkids on their knees and tell them the story of the King Fish and the Vulture.

It is a heart-warming bed-time story. It very easily could have been a disaster story, but more about that later.

The King Fish is Tim Salmon, whose two-run home run - his second of the game - in the eighth inning gave the Angels a 11-10 win over the San Francisco Giants in Game 2 of the World Series. Salmon went 4 for 4 with four RBI and three runs scored, and a base-running decision in the sixth contributed to a game-tying run.

The Vulture is Francisco Rodriguez, the kid pitcher who isn't old enough to drink in California and has been in the major leagues all of a month. Three scintillating innings of relief in a must-win game kept the Angels around long enough for Salmon to win it.

It was Rodriguez's fifth postseason win as a middle-relief prodigy, tying a major-league record for most wins in a postseason and increasing his mythic October status. After all, not many players are candidates for World Series MVP a season before he's a candidate for rookie of the year.

In his three innings, Rodriguez retired all nine Giants he faced while striking out four. He threw 26 pitches and 22 were strikes. He was the only Angel to retire Barry Bonds Sunday, getting him to ground out.

Without Rodriguez, the Angels are in danger of falling behind 0-2 in the seven-game series while heading to San Francisco for three.

``I wouldn't say it was easy,'' Rodriguez said, ``because they're a good team and it was a tough situation. But I'm used to pitching more than an inning. I started two years ago. I was focused and just wanted to get ahead and keep the ball down.''

Scioscia was impressed.

``That was incredible,'' he said. ``That's the game right there. If we don't get the game settled down, maybe we don't comeback to win.''

Without Salmon, maybe Barry Bonds' ninth-inning home run off Troy Percival is the game-winner. Instead, it's a footnote as the first home run ball in Anaheim to reach orbit.

``I knew I got it,'' Salmon said of his home run. ``I had a feeling it would come down to something like that. It's something I've dreamed about for a long time.''

Salmon, one of the few Angels pressing at the plate in the postseason, broke out of his funk dramatically Sunday. He had a single in a six-hit, five-run first and his home run in the second extended the lead to 7-4.

``I was up a while (Saturday) night thinking about that pop-up with a man at third,'' he said of a late at-bat in Game 1. ``You want to come through in this kind of situation. That first hit helped things along.''

It's a bit ironic that Salmon, the most veteran Angel, and Rodriguez, the youngest, have lockers next to each other.

On a day off before the World Series, a smiling Salmon stood at his locker and excitedly welcomed wave after wave of reporters with questions about the Angels' first-ever run to postseason glory.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez, the youngster who was called up on Sept. 18 and whose name plate above his locker is misspelled, quietly read a copy of the Angels' post-season media guide, oblivious to the buzz in the locker room.

``I've got to believe that he has to respect the magnitude of it all,'' said Salmon of Rodriguez, ''but he's pretty low-key. I tell the young guys to just appreciate it and don't hold back. He's been awesome, our ace in the hole.''

Until Rodriguez and Salmon showed up, Sunday's game threatened to weigh on Mike Scioscia's shoulders like a boulder.

Even before it began, curbside viewers wondered about the decision to start Kevin Appier in Game 2, which loomed more important after the Giants beat ace Jarrod Washburn in Game 1. The 34-year-old veteran is a warrior, but he also often walks a fine line between effective and disaster.

Staked to a 5-0 lead, Appier imploded in the second, allowing four runs and a walk, and departed the game in the third after a Jeff Kent home run, the third he allowed, and a walk to Barry Bonds.

Scioscia went to John Lackey, the scheduled Game 4 starter. And the rookie, who came in to keep the Angels close in Game 3 of the divisional series against the Yankees and then win Game 4 of the LCS with seven shutout innings, stopped the bleeding.

In the fifth, Rich Aurilia's bloop to center skipped past Darin Erstad for a double, and Scioscia ordered Bonds walked. Instead of leaving Lackey in, Scioscia went to the bullpen and Ben Weber.

The itinerant reliever who was clutch all during the regular season got raked, allowing four of the next five hitters to single, good for four runs and a 9-7 Giant lead.

Scioscia felt he could get 30 pitches out of Lackey and still have him available for his Game 4 start Wednesday. But it's dangerous to make decisions on a future game when the game at hand is still undecided.

``We figured he could make 30 and still make start. ... Under the circumstances, he could have gone a little longer but then he wouldn't have been available for Game 4.''

At this point in the season, messing around with the vagaries of middle relief is a disaster in the making. Salmon's game-winning home run was against the Giants' Felix Rodriguez, Dusty Baker having decided to keep his Rodriguez in while his best set-up man, Tim Worrell, was available in the bullpen.

Angels fans have nothing against Weber or anyone else in the middle relief corp, but right now they'll all feel better taking their chances with Rodriguez and Percival.

Rodriguez is now 5-0 in the postseason even though he's never won a regular-season game. He won Games 2 and 3 of the Yankee divisional series and Games 3 and 5 of the ALCS against Minnesota. He's the youngest pitcher to win multiple postseason games since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

His postseason totals are eight games, 13 innings, four hits, two runs, four walks and 19 strikeouts, and opponents are hitting around .100 against him.

``He was big,'' said Baker, the Giants manager. ``We've been hearing he has good stuff. He got a lot of strikes and has a good slider. He shut us down.''

``This club is amazing,'' said Salmon. ``Every night there's a new hero.''

With five wins, Rodriguez hardly qualifies as new, but no one in red is complaining.

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Photo:

This day belonged to Tim Salmon, here celebrating his game-winning home run, and reliever Francisco Rodriguez.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer