With this stumble comes a trip

The Yankees came back from a 4-0 deficit with six runs in the seventh, only to have the Angels score three times in the bottom of the inning to overtake them. The Yankees allowed this team that is playing with spirited determination after the early-season death of Nick Adenhart to hang around for at least one more game, maybe two.

Odds point to the Yankees ending this thing at their ballpark in the colder weather. But who knows? Maybe they go back there and the pitching matchups become more favorable to Angels. Maybe the Angels all of a sudden find the weather or Yankee Stadium to their liking. The Yankees have left themselves a little vulnerable, maybe even a little less sure of themselves than they were before Game 5.

Bottom line is they had a chance to end it here and they didn’t. The Yankees had heart-attack closer Brian Fuentes on the ropes when they loaded the bases in the top of the ninth with two outs, but Nick Swisher, batting only .118 this series, couldn’t get the job done after he worked the count to 3-and-2, popping to shortstop to end the game. The Angels’ weakness is their closer and New York had him cooked.

“I was just trying to calm myself down,’’ said Swisher. “This series hasn’t exactly gone the way I wanted it to personally. I was just trying to drive the ball up the middle and get some runs in. But I can’t say we’re completely disappointed because we’re still up, 3-2, and we’re going home so I think that’s still a favorable situation for us.’’

Favorable, but also tense. The Yankees are expected to win at home, where they’ve battered opponents all season. But what if the Angels now have the momentum and magic and mojo?

“Any time you have a chance to close it out and you don’t win, no matter what the score, it’s a missed opportunity,’’ said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. “But we get a chance to go to our ballpark where we’ve played extremely well. You know, we’ve had a lot of come-from-behind wins there, so, yeah, it’s a missed opportunity but we still have another game.’’

Girardi feels the Yankees have the ability to pick themselves up and head back in the right direction. That was surely the case in the regular season, and also during these playoffs. But does that run out as well?

“We had a tough loss on Monday and then we came out and played a great game on Tuesday. Tough loss today and we’ll see what happens on Saturday,’’ Girardi said.

Certainly the Angels had some luck in the ninth. Johnny Damon couldn’t have hit a ball any harder and it went right to first baseman Kendry Morales for the first out.

“It’s frustrating,’’ Damon said. “We were trying to get something started right there and I hit the ball pretty well. But we got the bases loaded again and Nick squared the bat, but just didn’t get enough of it. We had good at-bats in that inning and it had the feel like we were going to at least tie it up, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“It’s tough when you fought back like we did and not to be able to finish something like that off. You always want to be able to win the series when you can. You never want to give the team life when we’re in this position. So we go home and we try to win it in New York.’’

Torii Hunter felt the Angels received new life by rallying after they squandered the four-run lead.

“It was a little deflating,’’ Hunter said. “I came into the dugout, threw my glove. But after that I settled down and everybody settled down. We went out there. We knew we had time left and a couple of innings to go. We did exactly what we’ve done all year in those situations. We battled and we pushed across [three] runs.’’

Hunter said the Angels are excited about going back to New York and defying the odds. They’ll have to stop letting the cold affect them. They’ll have to shut out the crowd.

“We can’t think about Game 7 or CC [Sabathia] or anything like that. Just take it one game at a time like we did today,’’ Hunter said.

And the Yankees can’t be thinking about Game 7, either. If they are, this might get more dicey.

All season, the Yankees have righted the ship after a bad game. But as they took that cross-country flight back to New York, they knew the champagne cart was shipped, too, not needed here.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.