Bronx, NY – Alfonso Soriano's addition has the New York Yankees hitting like the Bronx Bombers again.
The veteran outfielder drove in a career-high seven runs while clubbing two homers for a second straight game, with the power display carrying the Yankees to an 11-3 battering of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Soriano belted a grand slam in the first inning and added a two-run double in the second as New York pounded Jered Weaver for eight runs over the opening two frames. He added a solo homer later on, one night after knocking in six runs during a 19-hit Yankee outburst in Tuesday's 14-7 win over the Angels.
"You don't see those days. I have to take those days because it's not easy," Soriano said. "Sometimes I get one RBI in one game and I got 13 in two games. I'm very excited, very happy."
Robinson Cano chipped in four hits in as many at-bats, including an RBI single, while Chris Stewart finished 2-for-4 with two RBI to help the Yankees to their fourth consecutive victory, the club's longest win streak since a season-high six-game tear from July 1-6.
Aided by the run support, Ivan Nova (6-4) worked 7 1/3 innings and allowed three runs while scattering 10 hits and fanning six without a walk.
Weaver (7-6), who had gone 6-1 with a 1.78 ERA over his previous eight starts, lasted five innings and was tagged for nine runs on nine hits.
"You're going to have some blowup games throughout the course of the season," Weaver said. "I had one tonight. I'm pretty disappointing, especially after losing my last two here. I wanted to come out and have a good one, but that wasn't the case."
Mike Trout went 2-for-4 with two RBI in the loss, the Angels' fourth straight and eighth in 10 games. Josh Hamilton also had two hits along with an RBI for Los Angeles.
Weaver's night started off somewhat quietly, as he retired the first two Yankee hitters before Cano dropped in a single. Alex Rodriguez then drilled a double down the third-base line before Weaver pitched around Curtis Granderson to load the bases and face Soriano.
The move backfired, as the New York slugger clobbered a 1-0 fastball into the monuments behind center field to stake his team to an early four-run lead.
New York did more two-out damage in the second, with Cano's single to right plating Stewart from second for a 5-0 advantage. Rodriguez drew a walk to fill the sacks in front of Granderson's RBI base hit, which again brought Soriano to the plate with the bases loaded.
This time, he ripped a double into the left-field corner that brought home both Cano and Rodriguez, with his fifth and sixth RBI of the night pushing the margin to 8-0.
Nova ran into his own troubles in the third, allowing a pair of baserunners on a hit batsman and a single before Trout and Hamilton delivered back-to-back two-out RBI hits to put the Angels on the board.
Trout came through once more in his next at-bat, lacing a single up the middle in the fifth that knocked in Grant Green to cut the lead to 8-3. Green led off the inning with an infield hit, took second on J.B. Shuck's single and advanced another base on a double-play grounder.
Weaver settled down after his rough first two innings, yielding just one more hit until Soriano opened the bottom of the fifth with a towering homer into the left-field seats to establish a new personal-best for RBI in a game.
Nova and reliever Preston Claiborne kept the Angels scoreless the rest of the way, and New York's run total reached double-digits with a two-run seventh. Granderson led off with a double against Kevin Jepsen and Soriano was walked, with both coming around when Stewart singled three batters later.
Game Notes
The Angels recalled infielder Andrew Romine, the older brother of Yankees catcher Austin Romine, from Triple-A Salt Lake prior to the game to start at shortstop with Erick Aybar held out with a cramp in his left calf ... Trout has reached base safely in 36 straight games, tying Aybar (2011) for the second-longest stretch in Angels' history ... Soriano's slam was the fifth of his career and first by a Yankee in an opening inning since Rodriguez did so against Tampa Bay on Sept. 14, 2008 ... Cano extended his hitting streak to nine games and now has 1,590 career hits, surpassing Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto for 15th place on the Yankees' all-time list ... The Angels have lost four straight to New York for the first time since a five-game skid overlapping the 2003 and '04 seasons.
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