Vladimir Guerrero triggered an eight-run eighth inning with a home run, leading the Los Angeles Angels to an 11-4 rout of the Yankees on Saturday.
The Angels, who began the day 13 games ahead of Texas in the AL-West, improved to a season-high 30 games over .500.
Mark Teixeira, Garret Anderson and Mike Napoli added solo home runs for Los Angeles, which has scored 30 runs in winning three straight.
The Yankees have lost four of six. In the four losses, they’ve given up 38 runs; in two wins, they’ve allowed just three.
After striking out all three times he faced Dan Giese, Guerrero led off the eighth against Edwar Ramirez (3-1) and drove the right-hander’s first pitch of the game to right-center for his 21st homer and a 4-3 lead.
Anderson added an RBI single, former Yankee Juan Rivera hit a two-run double, Chone Figgins singled home another run and Napoli scored on a wild pitch. Maicer Izturis then hit an RBI single and Guerrero drove in Figgins to cap the Angels’ most productive inning of the season. Seven of the runs came with none out.
Scot Shields (5-3) pitched a hitless eighth inning for the win.
Giese allowed a run and three hits over six innings and struck out five in his third major league start. The 31-year-old right-hander handed a 3-1 lead to Jose Veras, who promptly surrendered solo homers by Anderson and Napoli in the seventh.
Anderson led off the inning by hitting his 12th home run, extending his hitting streak to 15 games. Napoli, back in the lineup after missing 27 games because of irritation in his right shoulder, pulled the AL West-leaders even with his 13th homer.
In the top of the inning, Napoli had been stung on the right hand by a foul tip off the bat of Alex Rodriguez. He managed to stay in the game after making a practice throw to third base, and Rodriguez struck out on John Lackey’s next pitch to strand runners at the corners.
Lackey allowed three runs and nine hits in seven innings, striking out five. The right-hander escaped jams in the fourth and fifth innings with two men on base, striking out Xavier Nady in the fourth and fanning Derek Jeter in the fifth before giving up back-to-back homers to Rodriguez and Jason Giambi in the sixth.
Rodriguez drove Lackey’s 1-2 pitch to left-center for his 26th homer and 545th of his career to pull within three of Mike Schmidt for 12th place on the career list. Giambi then hit one out to right for his 23rd home run and 200th with the Yankees. Of Giambi’s 81 hits this season, 37 have been for extra bases.
Teixeira, whose grand slam last Sunday at Yankee Stadium was wasted in a 14-9 loss, hit a first-pitch fastball way up the batter’s eye in center field to trim the Yankees’ lead to 2-1 in the sixth. The Yankees got that run back in the seventh on Johnny Damon’s RBI single.
Notes: Rodriguez is 9-for-47 lifetime against Lackey, but four of his hits have been home runs. … Angels OF Reggie Willits was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a concussion he sustained in a collision with Yankees catcher Jose Molina while scoring on a short wild pitch during Friday night’s 10-5 win. INF Sean Rodriguez was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake. … Yankees C Ivan Rodriguez returned to the lineup. He missed two games with a bruised right knee after a home plate collision with Texas’ David Murphy on Wednesday night. … Melky Cabrera snapped an 0-for-18 drought with a fifth-inning single. … Izturis returned to the lineup after sitting out six games with a jammed left thumb. … Giambi was hit by a pitch for the 15th time. The Yankees club record is 24, set by Don Baylor in 1985. … The Yankees’ bullpen has recorded a major league-best 371 strikeouts.