ANAHEIM — Eight runs from a Yankees lineup wasn’t enough thanks to a miserable outing by Phil Hughes.
If ever a game lined up for a win, last night’s matchup against the Angels at Angel Stadium was it.
Angels ace Jered Weaver left with a lower back problem before registering a first-inning out. That helped the Yankees cop a three-run lead before the Angels batted.
Yet, thanks to a fastball he couldn’t command because he admitted there was “too much adrenaline and excitement and I tried to overthrow,’’ Hughes gave four runs up in the home first and set the stage for an offensive orgy that the Angels won, 9-8, on Mark Trumbo’s first-pitch homer off Cory Wade in the ninth inning.
Wade gave up the blast on a change-up that delighted most of the 44,016 in the Angel Stadium crowd, but he wasn’t the reason the Yankees’ season-high, five-game winning streak ended.
Nor was the lineup to blame.
“The offense got the runs and I gave it right back,’’ said Hughes, who was rocked for seven runs and 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira (2-for-2 with three walks) homered for the Yankees, who battled back from an 8-5 hole in the seventh inning to tie the score on the slumping Russell Martin’s, two-run, two-out double inside the third-base bag.
The only real positive development for the Yankees was that Nick Swisher and Granderson weren’t seriously hurt when they collided on the right-field warning track in the third inning chasing Trumbo’s fly ball.
Granderson got a glove on the ball and then crashed into Swisher. Granderson spun into the wall and Swisher went down on the grass.
“I feel fine, I don’t know what happened,’’ said Granderson, who singled and scored in the first and homered in the second.
“He dead-legged me with his knee,’’ said Swisher, who explained it was too loud to hear each other. “The next thing you know I was laying on my back. I am glad there was nothing near the [head].’’
The Yankees put together a serious threat in the ninth, but shortstop Erick Aybar, whose fielding error in the first helped the Yankees score three unearned runs, stopped Martin’s two-out single from going through to center field. With the bases loaded, Jordan Walden induced Derek Jeter to ground out.
Wade, the fourth Yankees reliever who has been very good across the first two months, then made a mistake that ended the game.
“It was a change-up over the plate,’’ Wade said of the deciding pitch. “If I throw that pitch two more times he hits it out of the park two more times. It was a bad pitch. He beat me; there is no other way to put it.’’
As for Hughes, he couldn’t control a fastball that tailed away to right-handed hitters. And by the time he mixed in change-ups the three-run cushion was gone.
“I felt good with my stuff,’’ said Hughes, who explained pitching in a ballpark 10 minutes from where he grew up wasn’t the reason there was too much adrenaline and excitement running through his body. “After the first inning I knew it was going to be a battle. I wanted to give us a chance to win but unfortunately it didn’t work out.’’