SAN FRANCISCO -- On the one hand, they can't take much more of this. On the other hand, they'll be happy to take it right on through the weekend.

The way the San Francisco Giants win these October baseball games, it's not good for their heart palpitations. They've got no fingernails left to chew on. They've now scripted more thrillers than Stephen King.

	Catcher Benito Santiago, left, and closer Robb Nen celebrate after the Giants' Game 4 win.

But if this is the way it's supposed to work, if this is how they're going to have to win the World Series, then hand out some more of those blood-pressure pills. There will be plenty of time to pass out in November.

"The way these games have been going," said Rich Aurilia, "the only time we've had a chance to relax is when we get blown out."

In other words, their 4-3 win over the Angels on Wednesday -- a win that tied a fascinating World Series at two wins apiece -- was no afternoon in the hammock, either.

It sure wasn't the master plan to fall three runs behind a team that had just scored in 10 of its last 20 innings. But the Giants did.

It's never an inspiring sight to see your No. 5 hitter bounce into two bases-loaded double plays in the first three innings, then smash his batting helmet into a million plastic particles and break his bat in half. But that happened to be how Benito Santiago started off his day at the World Series.

It isn't every team that starts its game-tying three-run rally on a 55-foot nubber by the pitcher, followed by a bunt that criss-crosses the foul line. But that's exactly how the Giants did it.

And then, to score the winning run in the eighth inning, all they had to do was mount a rally against a pitcher who had faced 39 hitters in this postseason -- and given up a hit to precisely six of them. But why wouldn't the Giants figure out a way to do that, too? By nothey're beginning to think "Mission Impossible" was a movie about them.

Their last four postseason victories have been by (what else?) one run. They haven't won a game by more than three runs in 2½ weeks. Six of their last seven games were still in doubt down to the last pitch.

Somehow, this team is two wins away from winning the World Series -- and it hasn't even outscored its opponents in this postseason. The Giants have scored 69 runs in their 14 postseason games. Naturally, they've also given up 69 runs. So let's just say the '98 Yankees, they're not.

"You know what?" Aurilia laughed. "If we get outscored in the postseason and win the World Series, I really don't think anybody in here will care. That'll be fine."

It'll also be pretty amazing. The team that won the World Series last year -- those Arizona JohnsonSchillingbacks -- outscored its opponents by 32 runs. Heck, that Angels team the Giants are playing has outscored its opponents this month by 28.

But at this point, the Giants must have amnesia. They don't seem to remember any other way to win.

"It's been going on like this for two months," said David Bell, who, on Wednesday, became the first member of the three-generation Bell family who could say he got a game-winning hit in the World Series. "The whole month of September was like this. As a player, they're great games to play in. But I've never seen so many close games in a two-month period."

Well, who has? Since Sept. 1, the Giants have now played 20 games decided by one or two runs -- and won 14 of them. But as huge as all of them were, none of them matched the magnitude of this game.

Lose it and they were down, 3 games to 1, with two of the final three World Series games in Anaheim. Win it, and this was suddenly more than just an even World Series. It was a potentially CLASSIC World Series.

Game 1 was tight. Game 2 was berserk. And then came Wednesday night, one of the best games of the whole postseason.

It didn't have that look when eight of the first 16 Anaheim hitters reached base -- and Troy Glaus' seventh postseason homer gave the Angels a 3-0 lead.

And it really didn't have that look when the Angels intentionally walked Barry Bonds to load the bases in the first and third innings -- and Santiago took about 15 seconds to end both innings with double-play balls.

Leaving the bases loaded against a team that thinks it's supposed to bat around every single inning is not recommended by the surgeon general. And Santiago apparently wouldn't recommend it, either -- since he promptly stomped back into the dugout and obliterated his bat and batting helmet.

	"	If I hit into a double play, they'll walk the guy. If I hit a home run, they'll still walk the guy. ... When I used to hit seventh, sixth, I got four at-bats a game. But hit behind this man, you get five or six. It's good for my bonuses. "
		— Benito Santiago, Giants catcher

"That's a hard feeling, man, after I hit into that second double play with the bases loaded," said Santiago, who has come to bat with men on base an astounding 24 times just in the NLCS and World Series alone. "I feel like I want to keep running out of the ballpark, jump in the water and don't come back."

Would have made for some excellent videotape for the official World Series video if he'd done that. But since there were still six innings left to play, that wasn't a particularly attractive option. So he did the next-best thing: Blame it on the equipment.

"I said, 'This helmet, I don't want to use it no more,'" Santiago said. "'And this bat, too.'"

So down they went. Might have been the turning point in the whole game.

Or maybe it was the bottom of the fifth, when -- with the Giants three runs behind and 15 outs remaining -- manager Dusty Baker left some heads scratching when he let Rueter lead off the inning.

Baker said he did it because "my bullpen was spent" and because "I know Kirk can hit." OK, let's go to the stats. Rueter hit .177 this year, with no extra-base hits and three runs scored. So Ichiro, he ain't.

But up he went against Angels starter John Lackey, and thunked a swinging-bunt gyro-ball that took one bizarre hop past Lackey, then made an abrupt right turn away from first baseman Scott Spiezio. And while the SFPD ticketed the baseball for wreckless driving, Rueter clambered down the line and beat it out.

Asked if he could describe that picturesque hit, reliever Tim Worrell replied: "What's that McCarver says about David Eckstein? Just enough? That was that hit -- just enough."

Next it was Kenny Lofton's turn to reach base on a hit so short, it would have had to change planes eight times to make it into McCovey Cove.

Lofton laid a bunt down the third-base line that rolled barely fair. Until it changed its mind and veered barely foul. Until it decided that was a lousy idea and headed back to the line. It was still zigging and zagging when third baseman Troy Glaus lurched to pick it up. Plate ump Mike Winters gave it the old "fair" sign. And two Giants were on.

Glaus' testimony: "I thought I'd take a chance. It came off the line by about a 16th of an inch. By the time I got down there to touch it, it got back on the line by about a 16th of an inch."

Lofton's account: "Fair or foul, I wasn't sure. I just run, and whatever happens after that, I can't control."

And the best take of all, from Aurilia, who was applying massive body English from the on-deck circle: "It started on the line. Then it rolled back on the dirt. Then it hit the lip and crossed the line again. Then it went back on the dirt. Then it went back on the line. I guess it really is a game of inches."

Uh, make that 16ths of inches. Aurilia then singled in one run. Jeff Kent made it 3-2 on a sacrifice fly. Hold up four fingers for Barry. And uh-oh, it was Santiago's turn again -- just one GIDP away from tying the record World Series trifecta achieved by Willie Mays in the 1951 Series.

"When I went up there, I saw double play in my mind again," Santiago said. "So I said, 'Don't do that again.'"

He told himself not to pull the ball, to take it the other way. Three pitches later, he lined a 1-and-1 hanger through the middle. Tie game. Relieved catcher.

"No matter what I do, I'm thinking they're gonna do this all night long," said Santiago, who is 5-for-10, with two homers and six RBIs, in this postseason following Bonds' intentional walks. "If I hit into a double play, they'll walk the guy. If I hit a home run, they'll still walk the guy. So all the pressure is on him, not on me.

"When I used to hit seventh, sixth, I got four at-bats a game," Santiago went on. "But hit behind this man, you get five or six. It's good for my bonuses."

But this time, it was better for his team, because it allowed Rueter to become the first Giants starter to make it through six innings of a World Series game since Jack Sanford did it in Game 7 of the 1962 Series. And then the duel of two great bullpens began.

	Seventh heaven for Angels?
	If the World Series goes to a Game 7, the Angels will have recent history on their side. The last seven teams to host a Game 7 have all been winners:
	Year	Home team	Result
	2001	D-backs	3-2 over Yankees
	1997	Marlins	3-2 over Indians
	1991	Twins	1-0 over Braves
	1987	Twins	4-2 over Cardinals
	1986	Mets	8-5 over Red Sox
	1985	Royals	11-0 over Cardinals
	1982	Cardinals	6-3 over Brewers
	Note: The 1979 Pirates are the last team to win World Series Game 7 on the road (4-1 over the Orioles in Baltimore).

Felix Rodriguez and Tim Worrell kept the zeroes flowing through the eighth. Then J.T. Snow stepped in to lead off the bottom of the eighth against the heretofore untouchable Francisco Rodriguez.

Snow was one of K-Rod's nine victims in a Game 2 outing in which no Giant got the ball out of the infield. But just having seen him once helped Snow this time.

"Hitting," Snow said, "is all about timing. I've seen his ball now -- what it does, how he throws it. And that's something you file away for next time."

Snow checked the file, lined a slider to right and got the inning started. Rodriguez then moved him to second with an exploding fastball that careened off the mitt of catcher Bengie Molina. And with one out, it was Bell's turn to be a hero.

All around him, 42,000 people were standing, chanting, pounding their official "Most Memorable Moments" Thunderstix together, trying to survive yet another night of rooting for this angina-inducing baseball team of theirs. Bell said he shut it all out.

Rodriguez threw him a 1-and-0 fastball. Bell stroked it through the middle. Snow came roaring home, ready to plow through Molina the way his father, the wide receiver, once steamrolled free safeties.

But Tim Salmon's throw was up the line. The Giants had the lead. Rodriguez had given up his first RBI hit since Oct. 2 -- nine outings, 20 strikeouts and 38 batters ago. And Pac Bell erupted in one more blast of the pandemonium that is becoming the specialty of the house.

"The whole atmosphere in this place is electric," Bell said. "And I think that contributes to giving us that extra energy to win games like this."

Well, wherever it comes from, whatever it's leading to, they ought to bottle it.

"We just do," Worrell said, "what we have to do."

Whether it's good for their electrocardiogram results or not.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.