Odds are in the Yankees' favor with Pettitte on the hill for Game 6

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Andy Pettitte allowed three earned runs over 6 1/3 innings against the Angels in Game 3. Chuck Solomon/SI

In the minutes after the Angels' stunning 7-6 Game 5 victory over the Yankees Thursday night in Anaheim, the Yankees' clubhouse attendants were busy resealing with thick gray duct tape the several large cardboard boxes filled with hats and T-shirts that advertised an ALCS title. The boxes had been cut open, perhaps, after the top of the seventh, in which the Yankees all at once stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to take a 6-4 lead.

The Angels managed to delay the Yankees' celebration for at least two nights -- if not three, as a severe rainstorm was predicted for Saturday in the Bronx. And they did it largely due to two big innings (the first and the seventh, in which they scored all of their runs against starter A.J. Burnett and relievers Damaso Marte and Phil Hughes), as well as a stellar performance by their ace, John Lackey. And they did it despite the fact that they have yet to initiate much of a running game against the Yankees. After ranking third in the majors with 148 stolen bases during the regular season, they have four during the ALCS -- two of which came when Yankees pitchers were paying no attention to their baserunners, and none of which have directly produced any runs.

The Angels' team speed was perceived to be the one advantage they might hold over the Yankees entering the ALCS, and they will need to effectively deploy it to have any chance of winning the next two games and taking the series. That the base paths at Yankee Stadium will likely be wet (and therefore, slow) on Saturday is bad news for L.A. Even worse news is that they will be facing Andy Pettitte.

Pettitte, the savvy southpaw that he is, picked off six base runners during the regular season -- trailing only the White Sox's Mark Buehrle in that category in the American League -- and he was almost maniacally attentive to Angels base runners in his Game 3 start, throwing over to first base a remarkable 19 times and picking off Torii Hunter in the fourth inning. Even though the arm strength of 38-year-old catcher Jorge Posada is average at best (runners stole 80 bases against Posada this season, the fifth-most allowed by any catcher), Pettitte's skill and attentiveness, combined with the elements, should effectively flummox the Angels' base stealers.

That should mean that the Angels will have to outslug the Yankees to reach Game 7, and that is usually a losing proposition, in both the short and the long term. The Angels' chances won't be helped by the fact that their starting pitcher, Joe Saunders, allowed 1.40 home runs per nine innings this season, the second-highest rate among American League pitchers who qualified for the ERA title, whereas Pettitte allowed 0.92 homers per nine, ranking him 11th-best in the AL. Remember, too, that Saunders plays in the AL West, which features two of the league's most powerless clubs (the A's and the Mariners), whereas Pettitte pitches in the AL East, in which he regularly faced three of the league's five most homer-happy teams (the Red Sox, the Blue Jays and the Rays). To Saunders' credit, though, he did pitch brilliantly at Yankee Stadium in Game 2, throwing seven innings of six-hit, two-run ball. But can he repeat that effort facing the strain of an elimination game?

"Our back is against the wall, so there's no pressure," Hunter said after Game 5.

But Pettitte, who has already started two more postseason games (37) than anyone else in major league history, and who is tied with John Smoltz for the most postseason wins (15) in major league history, likely won't be feeling much pressure, either.

"This is it," he said late Thursday night. "This is what I came back [to New York] for. It's kind of all worked out. And we have a tremendous opportunity here. I have a tremendous opportunity to help this organization get back to another World Series."

The odds are that he will be able do just that in Game 6, and that the Yankees' clubbies will this time be able to slice open those boxes of ALCS championship swag -- and keep them open.

Follow Ben Reiter on Twitter, during Game 6 and beyond: @SI_BenReiter.