CLEVELAND — The magic returned to Progressive Field in the nick of time Monday night.

In the midst of a pennant race and seemingly en route to their fifth straight loss, the Indians produced a ninth-inning rally that propelled them to an improbable 3-2 victory over the Angels.

Down 2-1 in their last at-bat, Cleveland tied it on Travis Hafner’s double before Jason Kipnis drove in the winning run with his first career major league hit — a two-out single between first and second off Angels reliever Hisanori Takashi.

The scene conjured up memories from earlier in the season when Cleveland seemed to win at home in dramatic fashion on a nightly basis.

“We’ve done it so many times this year that is has grown into our clubhouse,” said Indians manager Manny Acta, whose club won for the 11th time in its last at-bat at home and recorded its 23rd come-from-behind victory of the season. “Our guys believe that we can do it. If we get to the ninth inning and the game is close, there’s no rolling over.”

The Indians scored a run in the first off Angels starter Dan Haren and led 1-0 until the eighth inning, when Los Angeles reversed the order on a two-run home run from Bobby Abreu off Vinnie Pestano.

The game was low-scoring and tight thanks to sparkling efforts from Haren and Cleveland’s Fausto Carmona. Haren allowed just a run on three hits, while striking out 10 over 7 2⁄3 innings.

Carmona didn’t last as long, but he was more than effective, shutting out the Angels on four hits over six innings in what was his second straight positive outing since leaving the disabled list.

“Fausto had to labor a little bit,” Acta said. “He pitched behind in the count a lot. He had to work, but he gave us six scoreless innings.”

After generating two hits to score their run in the first inning, the Indians got only one more before rallying in the ninth against the Angels’ bullpen.

Closer Jordan Walden and his high-90s fastball were on the mound when Michael Brantley led off the final inning with a base hit and then stole second base to put a runner in scoring position.

Asdrubal Cabrera struck out, but Hafner delivered a double to left-center that scored Brantley with the tying run. Carlos Santana walked and Jack Hannahan was hit by a pitch, loading the bases and forcing the Angels into a gimmick defensive maneuver.

With Travis Buck at the plate, Los Angeles brought right fielder Torii Hunter into the infield between first and second, leaving just two players to patrol the outfield. It worked when Buck grounded to Hunter off Takashi and the outfielder made a infielder-like throw to the plate to cut down pinch runner Orlando Cabrera.

The bases were still full when Kipnis, promoted from Triple-A Columbus on Thursday, produced his first hit in six big league at-bats.

“Breaking a losing streak and getting a win, that was the biggest part of the at-bat,” Kipnis said. “I couldn’t do it in the other at-bats, so I figured, ‘Why not do it in this one with everything on the line?’ ”

“Jason Kipnis couldn’t pick a better spot to get his first hit in the big leagues,” Acta said.

The Indians gained ground on the first-place Tigers in the Central Division standings, trailing Detroit by a game.

Though there are two-plus months left in the regular season, the Indians are still keeping tabs on their division rivals, with an eye on qualifying for the postseason for the first time since 2007.

“After what we went through last year, why not start watching the scoreboard?” Acta said.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.