Angels Topple Yankees 6-2

After stealing second and third, Ichiro stood at ninety feet from home with no outs in the top of the seventh. Three straight strikeouts later Ichiro was stranded, and the Yankees’ best chance to tie the game was over. In the end, the Angels served the Yanks their fifth straight loss, 6-2.  

That’s how it’s gone for the Yankees during much of their west coast road trip, where it seems that the injuries to many of their major run producers have finally caught up with them. In the bottom of the seventh, after the Yankees stranded Ichiro, the Angels expanded their lead from 3-2 to 5-2, effectively putting the game out of reach for the slumping Bombers. Angel starter Tommy Hanson was credited with his fourth win of the season, working 6.1 innings of five hit ball, surrendering two earned runs.

The offense that the Yankees did manage to muster came in the third inning where Brett Gardner tripled in Chris Stewart and was then singled in by Jayson Nix. David Phelps, who started for New York, battled through six innings, giving up nine hits and getting credited with four earned runs. Phelps moved to 4-4 on the season.

Worse than the loss for the Yankees, was the fact that Mark Teixeira reinjured his wrist and had to leave the game. The injury was initially described as something of a tweak, but the star first baseman did leave to fly back to New York for examination, suggesting that it could be something worse. Teixeira had just recently returned to the starving Yankee line-up after missing the first 53 games of the season.