ANAHEIM, Calif. - Some would say John Lackey didn't know what he was asking for when he began pestering Angels pitching coach Bud Black on Thursday. A rookie begging his coach to give him the ball if this World Series somehow went seven games?

A very unlikely scenario. Just about as unlikely as the rookie getting that chance and delivering a franchise to its first World Series title.

Lackey pitched five strong innings to lay the foundation for a great team pitching performance that carried Anaheim to a 4-1 victory over the Giants on Sunday night in Game 7.

Lackey allowed five hits and one run. He became the first rookie to win a winner-take-all World Series game in 93 years.

As good as Lackey's effort was, it was complemented perfectly by the Anaheim bullpen. The Angels' pen, best in the AL during the regular season but occasionally iffy in the Series, pitched courageously behind him. Brendan Donnelly - brought in for the fifth time this week - pitched two tightrope innings. Frankie Rodriguez, who had tossed 46 pitches the night before, handled the meat of the San Francisco order in the eighth and recorded three strikeouts in doing it. And Troy Percival capped it all off with a scoreless ninth.

"I don't know if I've seen more gutsy pitching," manager Mike Scioscia said. "Each guy we had out there lived our philosophy. They gave it all they had. They expected a lot of themselves and delivered it. They left it on the field."

Lackey's persistence showed Black just how much desire the righthander has. "It's about makeup when you decide," Black said. "He wasn't scared by this. He's never scared of anything."

"I knew I was asking him to pitch me on only three days' (rest)," Lackey said. "But this is the thing you think about from when you're a very little kid. This is the thing you want your whole life."

Lackey got what he wanted Saturday night after the Angels had evened the Series. Scioscia approached him to say that he would be last night's starting pitcher. Lackey's response: "Good. I want it."

As daunting as his task seemed, Lackey made no big thing of it. "I went home and I went to sleep," he said. "There's only so much thinking about it you can do.

"I didn't feel pressure. I've been pitching in big games my whole life. If you can't take the pressure, you probably shouldn't be here. I looked at it as just a chance to have fun."

Catcher Bengie Molina said Lackey's pitching was as good as he's seen it since his seven shutout innings against the Twins in the ALCS. "He was hitting the corners and pitching with a big heart," he said.

Donnelly allowed a two-out walk and a double in the sixth, but escaped when he whiffed Tom Goodwin.

Had Donnelly not gone on to pitch the seventh, the Angels would have been in a tight spot. There was no guarantee he would pitch more than an inning, which would have necessitated bringing in someone else. But Donnelly legged it out when he retired the side in order despite a pair of warning-track flyouts.

"That was the critical inning," Black said. "We needed to get to the eighth and he got us there on his own."

Rodriguez was scintillating in the eighth, striking out Rich Aurilia and Jeff Kent before walking Barry Bonds and whiffing Benito Santiago.

Percival was his dominant self in the ninth, even looking back over his shoulder at the radar gun readings after his first few pitches. "I threw only one hook," he said. "I was going to make them beat No. 1 if they could.

"It was a great finish. I was proud to finish a game we pitched like that."