SAN FRANCISCO -- David Eckstein can't understand all the fuss over the home runs hit in the first two games of the World Series.

"Don't pitching and defense win games?" the Angels shortstop said, laughing, on Monday.

Game 2, of course, featured little pitching aside from Francisco Rodriguez. But lost amid the six-homer barrage -- the most home runs in a World Series game since 1989 -- were some excellent defensive plays, most notably a diving stop by Eckstein to throw out Rich Aurilia and teammate Adam Kennedy's diving grab and throw to nail Shawon Dunston. San Francisco's David Bell also made a diving play at third base to throw out Eckstein and Reggie Sanders made some nice plays in right field.

Eckstein's ability to handle shortstop -- and play it better than expected -- has been a hidden key all season for the Angels. A second baseman while coming up in the minors with the Red Sox, Eckstein won the shortstop job as a rookie last year primarily because the Angels had nobody else to play there.

With his admittedly weak throwing arm and awkward-looking straight-over-the-top motion, most teams wouldn't even consider the notion of playing Eckstein at shortstop. But he's quick and uses terrific footwork to get behind the ball and in position to make throws.

"I give a lot of credit to (Angels infield coach) Alfredo Griffin for helping me with the fundamentals and how to play hitters," Eckstein says. "He's helped with reading what the pitchers are doing and how that affects my positioning."

Indeed, he seems to always be in the right place. In Game 2, besides his diving play to get Aurilia in the first inning, he caught a line drive off the bat of Benito Santiago inches off the ground and doubled Barry Bonds off first base. He also made a heads-up play to get Reggie Sanders trying to advance from second to third on a groundball in the fourth.

But those plays were forgotten once Tim Salmon delivered his clutch home runs as was the bang-bang play at second when Kennedy made a terrific stop up the middle on Bell's grounder in the fifth and flipped to Eckstein at second. J.T. Snow was ruled safe and Dunston then added an RBI single.

Eckstein said the Angels weren't going to let a close call bother them.

"The way that game was going, we knew we'd have plenty of opportunities to get it back," he said. "That's what we've done all year. It's not going to rattle us and we'll keep fighting."

Francisco's stuff doesn't make it to San Francisco
Francisco Rodriguez -- you can call him Frank or Frankie, like his teammates do -- had no problems in his dominating nine-up, nine-down performance in Game 2, but he did have a problem when he arrived at Pac Bell Park for Monday's workout: His glove didn't arrive with the rest of the Angels' equipment. Also missing were his bats (yes, he says he has a couple).

"I don't know what happened," he said. "I packed them up, but maybe they left them behind in Anaheim."

Rodriguez took batting practice with the rest of the Angels pitchers, using a bat borrowed from Ramon Ortiz. He said he wasn't too pleased with his performance, even though he appeared to hit the ball harder than any hurler with the exception of John Lackey, who was an outstanding hitter in junior college.

"But I haven't picked up a bat in four years," said Kid K, smiling.

Palmeiro suddenly a power hitter
The Angels were laughing and joking around the batting cage. Several players were dressed in stocking caps to combat the wind and chilly weather at Pac Bell.

The biggest laughs came when reserve outfielder Orlando Palmeiro -- who hit a grand total of zero home runs in 263 at-bats this season -- smacked one over the right-field wall (although it fell just a little short of McCovey Cove).

"Get out, man!" yelled Palmeiro as the ball landed. "An upper-deck shot!"

Garret Anderson strolled into the cage and dead-panned, "When you hit it, I knew it was out."

In his next turn through the cage, Palmeiro hit one off the brick wall in right. "Line drive. Gotta get it up," he said.

Angels have faith in Lackey
Lackey, another rookie hurler for the Angels, is still scheduled to start Game 4, after pitching 2 1/3 innings and throwing 28 pitches in Game 2.

"We knew we had him in a limited role yesterday. I thought he did a heck of a job," manager Mike Scioscia said. "We need John Lackey to do more than just pitch one game out of the pen for us."

Lackey gave up two runs, but those runners were from a bloop hit by Aurilia and an intentional walk to Barry Bonds. Reliever Ben Weber inherited the runners and couldn't prevent either from scoring.

Lackey had never pitched in relief in his professional career before throwing three scoreless innings against the Yankees in the Division Series. He also beat the Twins in Game 4 of the ALCS with seven shutout innings.

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