ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Yankees survived a wild Phil Hughes, an ineffective Luis Vizcaino, Kyle Farnsworth and two singles given up by Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning last night at Angel Stadium because of long balls from Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada.
What they couldn’t overcome was Sean Henn in the 10th inning as they dropped a 7-6 decision to the Angels that was witnessed by 44,249.
Henn, the fifth Yankees pitcher, gave up a ground-rule double to Howie Kendrick with one out and watched Melky Cabrera and Bobby Abreu fail to glove Ryan Buddie’s drive into the right-center field gap as Kendrick raced home.
The loss stopped the Yankees’ three-game winning streak and dropped them to five back of the Red Sox in the AL East and 1½ games back of the Mariners, who lead the AL wild-card race.
Rivera, who started the ninth with the game tied 6-6 by retiring the first two batters, gave up a ground single to Vladimir Guerrero. Anderson followed by chopping a 0-1 pitch over first baseman Wilson Betemit’s head to put runners on the corners for Gary Matthews Jr. His ground-out to the right side sent the game into extra innings.
After Rodriguez, with his 40th homer, and Posada, with his 16th, made up for pitching sins committed by Hughes and Vizcaino and tied the score in the eighth inning, Joe Torre summoned Farnsworth.
Earlier in the day Torre talked about how Farnsworth’s previous four outings had given the manager confidence that Farnsworth’s funk was over. None of those four games had the pressure last night’s did, and Farnsworth melted quickly.
Having regained Torre’s confidence with four effective outings, albeit in no-pressure games, Farnsworth needed a stellar defensive play by Betemit and a questionable call by third base umpire Dan Iassogna to escape a jam in the eighth he created.
Farnsworth gave up a leadoff double to Matthews and walked Casey Kotchman on four pitches. Kendricks’ bunt advanced the runners. With the infield in, pinch-hitter Maicer Izturis hit a one-hop smash that Betemit back-handed. His throw to the plate was in plenty of time to nab Matthews for the second out. When plate ump Dale Scott asked Iassogna for help on Reggie Willits’ two-strike check swing, Iassogna ruled he went far enough for the final out.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia yelled at Iassogna from the third base dugout and was immediately ejected. That didn’t stop Scioscia from going jaw-to-jaw with the umpire.
When Johnny Damon led off the game, the scoreboard was sending bad messages. The Red Sox were already in the barn with a win and the Mariners were close to doing the same.
Knowing they needed a victory over the Angels to keep pace in the AL East and the wild-card chase the Yankees handed the ball to Hughes, who made his first big-league start in a ballpark he used to ride his bike to when in starring at nearby Foothill High School.
“We use to get two-for-one businessman special tickets,” Hughes said. “They cost about eight bucks.”
A first-round pick three years ago Hughes no longer needs discounted tickets to get into major league stadiums and last night he had 25 friends and family in the seats. What he needed to do was throw more strikes.
Hughes, who walked nine in 261/3 innings and never more than three in five big league starts, issued five walks and three of them scored.