By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Rally Monkey lives. The Anaheim Angels live. This World Series lives.

There is to be a Game 7. Inexplicably, incredibly. Shockingly to the San Francisco Giants, who watched a 5-0 lead melt like the ice on their champagne bottles Saturday night.

There is to be a Game 7 because Troy Glaus drilled a Robb Nen fastball into the gap in the eighth inning for a two-run double that gave the Angels a 6-5 victory, in a game they trailed 5-0 in the seventh inning.

"This team just doesn't give up," said Scott Spiezio, whose three-run homer in the seventh was the trumpet call to the comeback. "Until you kick us out of the park and tell us we have to go home, we're not giving up."

There is to be a Game 7 because just before Glaus batted, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson singled off Tim Worrell, advancing to second and third while Barry Bonds kicked the ball around in left field.

And before that, Darin Erstad hit a solo home run off Worrell to make it 5-4.

There is to be a Game 7 because in the seventh inning, Spiezio fought off pitch after pitch from Felix Rodriguez, foul ball after foul ball. Staying alive until he finally got the pitch he wanted, and sending it just over the right field wall for a three-run homer to turn a 5-0 game into a 5-3 game and give hope to a beaten, quivering, murmuring Edison Field.

"I kept telling myself I was right on it. Just keep looking for a pitch to hit," Spiezio said. "Finally I got one.

"I was praying. `Please get over the fence.' It seems like it took forever."

Said Glaus, `Baseball is a funny game. Anything can happen."

Not too funny for the Giants, who now face this unpleasant piece of history:

In the past 20 years, the home team is 7-0 in Game 7 of the World Series.

"The one thing about this club, they've come back after tough losses," said manager Dusty Baker. "They've done it over and over and over.

"It never comes easy. We never do it easy."

They'll send Livan Hernandez, hit hard in Game 3, against John Lackey, who is starting on three days' rest.

There is to be a Game 7 after a night of magic, between two wild card teams who resemble heavyweight fighters down to their last gasps.

"We have two teams with such a passion to strive for something," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "We're both going after it hard.

"When you have two teams like that, special things can happen. Tonight was one of them."

There is to be a Game 7 because the Giants bullpen finally fell apart, unable to hold a 5-0 lead only eight outs away from celebration.

And because the Anaheim bats, quieted for more than two games, suddenly came alive at the brink of winter.

"There was confidence, but we knew the game wasn't over," Baker said. "They proved it wasn't over.

"They just messed us up."

There is to be Game 7 despite the fact San Francisco reserve Shawon Dunston, with one homer this season - and that in April - hit a two-run shot in the fifth inning to break a scoreless deadlock between Kevin Appier and Russ Ortiz.

And despite the fact Kenny Lofton then doubled, convincing Scioscia to call on the bullpen, leaving Appier so enraged he sent various objects flying in the dugout before sitting down.

There is to be a Game 7 despite the fact Lofton stole third and scored on Francisco Rodriguez' wild pitch for a 3-0 lead.

And despite the fact Bonds hit his fourth homer of the World Series in the sixth inning, another rocket that seemed to be just icing at the time.

And despite Jeff Kent's RBI single in the seventh, confirming the Giants had fully caught on to the formerly-untouchable Rodriguez, and giving them a 5-0 gap.

A lead, by the way, which looked as safe as a deposit box, with Ortiz in full control, taking a two-hitter into the seventh - and an infield single and a broken-bat blooper.

But a pair of one-out singles ended his night, and Baker called for the bullpen that had not let him down in this World Series. Until Saturday.

"It's real depressing," Worrell said. "We have to come back tomorrow and do it all over again."

There is to be a Game 7 because the Anaheim bullpen, post-Rodriguez, allowed no more from the San Francisco bats, so the day could be saved.

There is to be a Game 7 because the game abruptly changed form and fortune, as games tend to do when the pitchers are weary and the batters are hot.

There is to be a Game 7 because after six games of continual shifts in pitching, hitting, momentum and luck - and a record 21 home runs - there is nothing left to do but have one night of winner-take-all.

"This is the game we want to win," Baker had said earlier Saturday night. "Game 7 is the game you have to win. I don't believe you have to win, until it's D-day. And it's not quite D-day yet."

But now it is.