Anaheim, CA – Erick Aybar went 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim continued the New York Yankees' West Coast woes with a 6-2 victory on Saturday.
Albert Pujols added a pair of run-scoring singles, while Howie Kendrick finished 3-for-3 with an RBI to support 6 1/3 solid innings from Tommy Hanson in the Angels' third straight win, which includes the first two matchups of this three-game set.
Hanson (4-2) yielded two runs on five hits and struck out a season-best eight batters to win his second consecutive start and send the struggling Yankees to a fifth loss in a row on their current three-city West Coast trek.
New York, which was held to two runs for the fourth straight game, managed just five hits and struck out a total of 14 times in matching a season-high four consecutive defeats. The Yankees also lost first baseman and cleanup hitter Mark Teixeira for at least the remainder of the series, with the two- time All-Star slated to head back to New York after aggravating a previous wrist injury in the fourth inning.
Ichiro Suzuki had two hits for New York, with Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix driving in the club's lone runs.
David Phelps (4-4) worked the first six-plus innings for the Yankees and was reached for four runs on nine hits.
"I thought David was pretty good today, but were not scoring enough runs right now," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
The teams were tied at 2-2 through 5 1/2 innings when Kendrick delivered his third single of the day after Phelps issued a leadoff walk to Mark Trumbo. After a fielder's choice advanced Kendrick to third, Aybar slapped an opposite-field single to left to send the Angels ahead.
New York had a good opportunity to knot the score in the seventh, when Suzuki reached on a bunt single and stole two bases to get to third with none out. However, Hanson fanned Thomas Neal before giving way to Scott Downs, who set down Reid Brignac on a called third strike before Michael Kohn came in to strike out Chris Stewart.
The Angels then created some distance by putting up two runs in the bottom of the seventh and one more in the eighth.
Peter Bourjos chased Phelps with a leadoff single and later scored on Josh Hamilton's double down the right-field line to push the lead to 4-2. Anaheim later loaded the bases to set up Shawn Kelley's walk of Kendrick that forced in another run.
Bourjos singled again in the eighth, stole second, and came around on Pujols' single against Joba Chamberlain.
"Our guys did a good job on the offensive side," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia.
Hanson retired the side in order in each of the first two innings, then took the mound in the third owning a 1-0 edge after Aybar drilled a Phelps fastball just inside the right-field foul pole in the Angels' half of the second.
The Yankees quickly answered, though. Stewart singled with two outs in the third and Gardner followed with a triple into the gap in right center to tie the score. Nix then singled through the left side of the infield to put New York up by a 2-1 count.
It was the only bad inning of Hanson's stint, with the right-hander limiting the Yankees to one hit over his next three frames.
"This was the most confident I've felt all year," said Hanson, who missed nearly a month earlier in the season with a personal issue. "I kept attacking and hitting my spots. I'm getting back into a rhythm. I felt good in the bullpen and it carried over into the game."
The Angels pulled even in the bottom of the third, with Mike Trout drawing a walk and stealing second before coming home on Pujols' two-out single, and the game remained deadlocked until Aybar came through in the sixth.
Game Notes
Prior to Trout's third-inning theft, Phelps had not allowed an opposing runner to steal a base in 106 consecutive innings since Boston's Pedro Ciriaco did so on August 18 of last season ... The Yankees fell to 8-18 at Angel Stadium since 2008 ... Kendrick now has 21 hits in his last 37 at-bats and is batting .418 (46-for-110) since May 14 ... New York is now 17-31 when scoring four or less runs this season.
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