page_title: 2009 American League Championship Series
section_title: Game 6
hierarchical_section_title: 2009 American League Championship Series / Game summaries / Game 6
caption_attribution_description: English: New York Yankees celebrate after 2009 American League Championship Series Game 6.
context_page_description: The 2009 American League Championship Series, the second round of the 2009 American League playoffs, was a best-of-seven game series matching the two winners of the 2009 American League Division Series. The AL East Division champions, the New York Yankees, defeated the AL West Division champions, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, four games to two, to advance to the 2009 World Series, their first since 2003.
  This was the third time that these two teams faced each other in the playoffs. They met in the 2002 ALDS and 2005 ALDS with the Angels winning both series by 3–1 and 3–2.
  New York, with a better regular-season record than Los Angeles, held home-field advantage. The series, the 39th in league history, began on October 16 and ended on October 25. Fox Sports carried all games with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the broadcast booth. Starting with the 2009 season, weeknight games began 40 minutes earlier as suggested by Commissioner Bud Selig.
  The Yankees won the series four games to two, and went on to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 4–2 in the World Series.
context_section_description: Sunday, October 25, 2009 — 8:20 PM (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
  Game 6 was originally scheduled to be played on Saturday, October 24, but was postponed because of rain.  Angels gaffes once again proved costly. In the top of the second, baserunner Vladimir Guerrero ran too far from first base on a fly ball out and was doubled off. The game remained scoreless until the top of the third inning when Bobby Abreu singled home Jeff Mathis, who singled to lead off and moved to second on a groundout, to give the Angels the early lead. The Yankees left six men on base in the first and second innings before they finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth after Johnny Damon lined a two-run single with the bases loaded off of Joe Saunders to give them the lead for the remainder of the game. A single reloaded the bases before Alex Rodriguez walked to force in another run. Saunders was then removed in favor of Darren Oliver, who pitched ​2 ²⁄₃ shutout innings.
  Andy Pettitte pitched a strong game, allowing one run in ​6 ¹⁄₃ innings while striking out six. Mariano Rivera entered the game in the eighth inning for a six-out save. Chone Figgins hit a leadoff single in the eighth, moved to second on a groundout and scored on a Guerrero single with two outs to close the gap to 3–2. In the bottom of the eighth, Robinson Cano drew a leadoff walk off of Ervin Santana, who was relieved by Scott Kazmir. The Angels misfielded two sacrifice bunts by the Yankees, a fielding error by Howie Kendrick and a throwing error by pitcher Scott Kazmir, allowing a run to score. A walk loaded the bases before Mark Teixeira's sacrifice fly made it 5–2 Yankees. Rivera retired the side in the ninth to record the Yankees' 40th American League pennant.
caption: New York Yankees celebrate after their 5–2 win against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
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