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Wang, A-Rod lead Yankees to rout of Angels

Jul 8, 2007 - 8:10 PM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Heading into the All-Star break under .500 is not the most ideal situation for the New York Yankees but at least they ended the first half virtually flawlessly.

Chien-Ming Wang won his sixth straight decision and the Yankees hit three home runs in a 12-0 rout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Sunday.

At 42-43, the Yankees have reached the break under .500 for the first time since 1995. They were 30-36 under Buck Showalter and wound up getting hot in September to claim a wild card berth.

Whether those Yankees can duplicate that feat remains to be seen but on a 92-degree day, there were plenty of positive signs in the finale of a 6-4 homestand against Oakland, Minnesota and the Angels.

While Wang (9-4) cruised on the mound, the Yankees had plenty off offense as Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez homered.

Wang worked 6 1/3 innings and scattered five hits. He struck out three, walked two, threw 55 of 88 pitches for strikes and recorded 11 of his 19 outs on the ground.

The righthander, who was the runner-up in the American League Cy Young Award race last season, has not lost since a 3-1 loss to the Angels on May 26 and has allowed three runs or less in nine of his last 11 starts.

He allowed a leadoff walk to Reggie Wilits in the first inning but Jorge Posada threw him out trying to steal second. After allowing two runners in the second, Wang retired 15 of the final 18 hitters he faced.

When Wang returned to the mound for the second, he had a four-run lead to work with. After the Yankees put together three straight one-out singles, Matsui crushed a 2-2 pitch from Angels starter Ervin Santana (5-10) into the upper deck in right field.

It was Matsui's 11th home run and third in four games.

That was more than enough for Wang, who watched the Yankees tie their biggest inning of the season when they scored six runs in the fourth.

Cano made it 7-0 with a three-run shot that bounced off the right field foul pole.

After knocking Santana out, Rodriguez connected for his major league-leading 30th home run of the season, a three-run shot off Chris Resop to left field that made it 10-0. Exactly 13 years after making his major league debut at Fenway Park for the Seattle Mariners, Rodriguez hit his 494th career home run and sixth on the homestand.

The Yankees, who scored 26 runs in their two victories over the Angels, capped the scoring in the seventh on pinch hitter Miguel Cairo's two-run single.

The Angels (53-35) will head into the break with eight losses in their last 12 games. But they still lead the AL West.

After getting 11 strikeouts in eight innings from John Lackey in Saturday's 13-inning victory, the Angels recieved a terrible outing from Santana, who is 1-8 on the road and has dropped a career-high four straight decisions.

Santana lasted a season-low three-plus innings and was tagged for a season-worst nine runs and seven hits.