ANAHEIM, Calif. -- They've been out here for 42 summers, enduring a wait even longer and more agonizing than if they had been standing in line at the Pirates of the Caribbean with a full bladder and DMV employees manning the boats.

But now, they are so close to the World Series they can practically see the cast from "Boston Public" sitting in the field boxes. Not quite four months after his major-league debut, Anaheim rookie John Lackey pitched the Angels to the verge of the World Series.

One more win. After 42 years. After all the near misses, after all the failures, after all the uniform, logo and managerial changes, the Angels -- dare we say it? -- are once again on the threshold of a World Series.

	“	But it's not a situation like in Boston or Chicago where everyone knows everything about everything that has and hasn't happened in the last 50 years or so. I mean, we're Anaheim. The people on the East Coast are barely even aware that we play games here. ”
		— Tim Salmon

"It doesn't really register. It's not something that really sinks in," said 10-year Angels veteran Tim Salmon after his team's 7-1 victory over the Twins. "Everything in the past two weeks or so has been dreamlike. You almost need an offseason to make sense if it."

Of course, that's assuming you have the luxury of an offseason that makes actually sense. The Twins did not last winter. Small wonder then that they're not real eager to have this season end Sunday.

Not that things look too promising at the moment.

Minnesota lost Game 4 with ace Brad Radke on the mound, falling behind 3-1 in the series. The Twins are one loss from winter and will turn to Joe Mays, who won Game 1 of this series but was 4-8 with a 5.28 ERA during the regular season. They've made four errors in four games and eight in the postseason. They've scored two runs in the past 21 innings.

"We won the first game and the Angels didn't give up," Radke said. "They won three in a row so why can't we? We've had our backs to the wall ever since last winter."

Indeed. After overcoming contraction, a 3-1 deficit is nothing. Right, guys?

Right?

"Yeah, we've been in worst situations and we weren't even supposed to be in existence, let alone here," center fielder Torii Hunter said. "But we are here. And we don't want to just give it to them."

Offensive outage

The Twins have scored a total of seven runs and have no home runs in four ALCS games, the big reason why they trail 3-1 in the series. Below is a game-by-game rundown of their offensive woes: Game 1: Scored two runs and were 5-for-27 (.185) with two doubles, six strikeouts and three walks. Game 2: Scored three runs and were 11-for-35 (.314) with two doubles, 10 strikeouts and two walks. Game 3: Scored one run and were 6-for-35 (.171) with one double, nine strikeouts and no walks. Game 4: Scored one run and were 6-for-32 (.188) with two doubles, 10 strikeouts and no walks. Overall: Are 28-for-129 (.217) in the series with seven doubles, 35 strikeouts and five walks.

They gave the Angels Game 4 in the eighth inning though, when Minnesota's pen allowed five runs, including four when Mike Jackson was on the mound. "We just blew up," Hunter said.

It's too bad, because it had been a terrific game until then. Lackey and Radke matched each either with six scoreless innings, as efficient as they were dominating. Lackey threw just 69 pitches the first six innings and Radke threw only 57.

"I was wondering whether anybody was going to score," Salmon said. "Those two weren't giving up any runs and it's not like there have been a lot of runs coming out of the bullpen."

Radke has been Minnesota's ace since 1995 while Lackey has only been in the majors since June, but the rookie won out Saturday. Lackey held the Twins to no runs and three hits in seven innings and struck out seven.

"Every time we were looking in, he threw his pitch away," first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said. "And every time we looked away, he pitched us in."

Radke was nearly as good but allowed two runs on a couple bloop hits and a throwing error in the seventh. And that was enough to beat his team the way it is struggling at the plate.

Jacque Jones is 1-for-17 this series but manager Ron Gardenhire not only hasn't moved him out of the lineup, he hasn't dropped him from the leadoff slot, either. Apparently, owner Carl Pohlad got a great bulk discount on a preseason order of pre-printed lineup cards. Gardenhire said there will no changes against Kevin Appier in Game 5.

"That's our lineup," Gardenhire said. "What you see is what you get and that's what got us here. I stand behind these guys, I always have and I always will."

Such loyalty has paid off several times this postseason but Gardenhire really needs to sit down Jones or at least move him down in the order. Not that he has many options. As bad as Jones has been, he has half of Minnesota's RBIs in the past 21 innings. Corey Koskie has struck out seven times in his past nine at-bats but leads the team in RBIs this month.

"We haven't done anything offensively," Mientkiewicz said. "Look at the first game when we won. We had guys on base early and we were able to do our thing. But it's hard to get a clutch hit when there are two out and no one on base.

"We have to put more pressure on those guys earlier in the game."

That's for sure. Late in the game, Anaheim's bullpen door opens and near-sighted, overpowering relievers spill onto the field like clowns pouring from a VW Bug. Minnesota has just one run and four hits in 11.2 innings against Anaheim's bullpen, striking out 23 times.

Francisco Rodriguez, who was called up to the majors so recently that he pitched against the Twins' farm club in the Triple-A championship in early September, pitched another scoreless inning Saturday and now has 14 strikeouts in 9.1 innings this postseason.

"In spring training, if we had talked about Lackey giving the ball to Rodriguez, you might be thinking we were talking about a Triple-A game," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "These guys are doing it, and not only doing in the major leagues, they're doing it under these circumstances, which just speaks volumes for their makeup and ability."

"When you see guys like that come in and do the job, you can't help but think things are lining up and falling into place," Salmon said.

One more win. That's all it takes. One more win.

The Angels, of course, were in this exact same situation 16 years ago when they took a 3-1 lead in the ALCS against the Red Sox. They took a three-run lead into the ninth inning and were one strike away from the World Series when Dave Henderson homered and the Red Sox rallied to win the series.

"But it's not a situation like in Boston or Chicago where everyone knows everything about everything that has and hasn't happened in the last 50 years or so," Salmon said. "I mean, we're Anaheim. The people on the East Coast are barely even aware that we play games here.

"So I guess we're fortunate that we're on the West Coast so the media doesn't make it out to be quite so bad. It's more something that the fans and the front office deal with it. We've put part of it to rest (by beating the Yankees) and if we win one more game, the fans won't have to deal with it, either."

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.