The New York Yankees' Andy Pettitte, left, Derek Jeter, center, and Brett Gardner can only watch in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the American League championship series as the Los Angeles Angels took a 7-6 victory.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — With stunned fans halfheartedly singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Torii Hunter chucked his glove at the dugout wall after the Angels turned a four-run lead into a two-run hole. Down the hall and around the corner, clubhouse attendants began icing crates of champagne and beer for the New York Yankees.

Both the center fielder and the clubbies were a bit premature. Didn't they realize this wacky AL championship series is usually just warming up during the seventh-inning stretch?

With one more rally and one improbable save in a 7-6 victory Thursday night, the Los Angeles Angels earned at least a two-day extension on their championship dreams — and Hunter got to pack that glove for New York.

Vladimir Guerrero tied it and Kendry Morales put Los Angeles ahead with run-scoring singles for the Angels, who responded to the Yankees' six-run comeback with a three-run rally of their own. It all happened during a jaw-dropping, 45-minute, 63-pitch seventh inning that trimmed the Yankees' ALCS lead to 3-2.

"It's a good team over there, and we battle," said Hunter, who went 2 for 2 with two RBI and two runs scored, including the go-ahead run on Morales' single to right. "Our backs are against the wall, man. We're just kicking, punching, scratching, doing whatever we've got to do to get off that wall."

From the Angels' four-run first inning to closer Brian Fuentes' final, perilous out, Game 5 had more swerves than a Bronx cab ride and far more good parts than a Hollywood blockbuster. Hunter still ranked it as only the second-most exciting game of the series, behind the 13-inning, 310-minute magnificence of Game 2 in New York — or maybe behind the Angels' 11-inning victory in Game 3.

Game 6 is scheduled for Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, with Andy Pettitte facing Los Angeles' Joe Saunders. New York also is slated to get more of the miserable weather that affected the first two games, with a prospective Saturday rainstorm raising the possibility of postponement.

"It gives them a couple more days of hope, and hopefully that hope ends on Saturday because anything can happen, especially with as tough of conditions as we're going to be playing in," said New York's Johnny Damon, who went 1 for 5. "They still have to beat us two times at our place, and hopefully that's going to be tough to do."

Only six teams have rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win a league championship series — most recently in 2007, when Boston came back against Sabathia and Cleveland on the way to a title.