Anaheim celebrated reaching their first World Series in their 41-year history with a 13-5 success over Minnesota.

Adam Kennedy blasted three home runs, including a towering three-run shot into the centre-field bleachers in the seventh inning.

Kennedy tied the post-season record for most homers by one player in a game and was also named the ALCS Most Valuable Player.

The Angels won a club record 99 games during the regular season and beat the defending American League champion New York Yankees 3-1 in the Division Series play-off.

After losing the first game against Minnesota, they bounced back to win the next four games, clinching the victory on home turf.

Kennedy's third home run of the game scored Scott Spiezio and Chone Figgins and erased a 5-3 Twins lead in front of a crowd of 44,835 at Edison Field.

The 26-year-old second baseman also hit solo homers in the third and fifth inning.

He hit a single up the third base line for his second hit of the seventh inning as the Angels went around the order.

Let down

Kennedy finished a perfect four-for-four, with five RBI and scored three runs.

The Angels got another home run from first baseman Spiezio in the fifth, who was three-for-four with three RBI.

Once again Minnesota's usually reliable bullpen let them down as the Angels scored 10 runs in the seventh.

The 10 runs tied the single-inning record set by the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1929 World Series.

National League Championship Series:
San Francisco 4-3 St Louis Cardinals
(San Francisco lead best-of-seven series 3-1)

Benito Santiago hit Rick White's sinker deep over the left field wall to claim a two-run homer and clinch a narrow victory for the San Francisco Giants over the St Louis Cardinals.

The Giants need just one more victory to set up a World Series meeting with the Anaheim Angels.

Fighting off a strong pitching performance by Cardinals starter Andy Benes, the Giants clawed their way back from a 2-0 deficit.

After reliever White intentionally walked Barry Bonds with one out in the eighth, veteran Santiago sat a 3-2 pitch down the middle and crushed it into the bleachers.

But after he gave up back-to-back walks to Jeff Kent and Bonds with one out in the bottom of the sixth, La Russa decided to pull Benes out of the game and replace him with right hander White.

Although White struck out Santiago, first baseman JT Snow smashed a double deep off the left centre field wall, driving in Kent and Bonds to level the game at 2-2.

After Vina singled and Renteria bunted him over to second base to begin the seventh, Hernandez was pulled for right hander Felix Rodriguez, who got Edmonds to ground out and Pujols to fly out to right field.

Giants reliever Scott Eyre shut down the Cardinals in the eighth and then Santiago performed his heroics.