ANAHEIM, Calif. — Across eight innings CC Sabathia and Travis Hafner kept a perfect cobalt blue Southern California sky from falling on the Yankees’ heads.
Embracing the responsibility of being a staff ace Sabathia hurled eight shutout innings. Finally, after watching the Yankees struggle to score runs in the previous eight games, Hafner delivered a three-run homer that highlighted a five-run third inning.
And yet, the lock became a white-knuckler with a classic matchup to decide it.
Saturday, Albert Pujols presented Mariano Rivera with a going-away gift from the Angels at home plate. Yesterday, the slugger dug into the batter’s box with the bases loaded, the Angels down a run and Rivera on the mound in the ninth.
“That’s what everybody pays for, those situations,” Lyle Overbay said of watching baseball’s all-time saves leader take on perhaps the best hitter of his generation.
Rivera needed three sinkers to whiff Pujols and save a 6-5 victory that was witnessed by 41,204 at Angel Stadium.
When Pujols couldn’t stop a check swing, the Yankees ended a five-game losing streak, went home with a 4-6 ledger for the 10-game West Coast swing and pulled within three lengths of the first-place Red Sox in the AL East.
In addition to Hafner’s two-out blast off Jered Weaver, Overbay and Jayson Nix drove in runs during the five-run third.
With Sabathia escaping a serious jam in the first and pitching more aggressively than in recent starts with a fastball that was clocked at 94 mph several times, the 5-0 bulge appeared be more than enough. And when Vernon Wells scored Robinson Cano with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly it was easy to visualize Sabathia going the distance.
But Mike Trout doubled and Sabathia walked Pujols to open the final inning. Joe Girardi called for David Robertson and an agitated Sabathia walked off the mound.
“I was more frustrated leaving runners on base, I have no gripe with him,” Sabathia (7-5) said of Girardi.
Mark Trumbo singled off Robertson’s right leg to score one run. After Yankee-killer Howie Kendrick whiffed, Robertson walked pinch hitter J.B. Shuck. Enter Rivera who traded a run for an out on Erick Aybar’s grounder to Overbay. Three straight soft singles produced three runs and brought Trout to the plate with the Angels down a run. A five-pitch walk loaded the bases for Pujols.
“You have the greatest closer of all time on the mound, you feel good in that situation,” Girardi said.
Three pitches later smiles flooded a dugout that had very little enjoyment since starting the three-city trip by going 3-1 in Seattle.
“I was trying to get him out as soon as possible,” Rivera said of Pujols.
As Hafner’s ball climbed toward the center field wall with a chance to get out, the pressure release valve in the Yankees’ dugout started to hiss. When Hafner’s 11th homer vanished Sabathia knew what was expected of him: don’t let this get away.
“I was looking for a pitch to hit up the middle,” Hafner said of the 1-2 breaking ball he scalded. “It was big for us, guys loosened up after that.”
When the Yankees didn’t score in the first after Brett Gardner doubled and Ichiro Suzuki drew a walk to start the game, the pressure of not scoring in the past eight games (18 runs) immediately returned.
“We have been pressing a lot. We weren’t giving ourselves a chance but I didn’t see a lot of panic,” said Overbay, who will play first while Mark Teixeira is out with right wrist inflammation. “We could have shut it down (after the first) and not give ourselves a chance.”
Hafner provided Sabathia a lead and he returned the favor with eight blank innings. Five runs in the ninth made it interesting but Rivera won the contest between legends.