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Angels rally for eight in eighth to beat Yankees

Aug 9, 2008 - 11:49 PM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- For six innings, journeyman Dan Giese gave the New York Yankees a reason to believe the back end of their rotation may be on track after all. Then, the bullpen derailed every fragment of that hope.

Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez and David Robertson erased Giese's stellar outing as Vladimir Guerrero started and ended an eight-run, eighth-inning rally that led the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to an 11-4 triumph over the Yankees on Saturday.

"I feel terrible that (Giese) shut down a very good offense and didn't factor in the decision," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "His effort was tremendous for us."

Thanks to the late outburst, the Angels cruised to their 25th win in their last 39 meetings with the lifeless Yankees.

"We are playing good baseball right now, and I just hope we can come out (Sunday) and keep swinging the hot bats and sweep the series," Angels first baseman Mark Teixeira said.

Guerrero belted a leadoff homer off Ramirez (3-1) to ignite the uprising and later capped the rally with an RBI single off Robertson.

"I was struggling most of the game but just wanted to get up there and try to hit the ball hard," Guerrero said through an interpreter. "I ended up getting a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it."

Torii Hunter followed Guerrero's blast with a double and scored on a single by Garret Anderson. Two batters later, former Yankee Juan Rivera delivered a two-run double for a 7-3 bulge.

Robertson replaced Ramirez and fared no better as Mike Napoli, Chone Figgins and Maicer Izturis greeted him with consecutive singles, two of which plated a run. Robertson also uncorked a wild pitch between the hits by Figgins and Izturis, allowing Napoli to score.

Ramirez failed to retire a batter, allowing five runs - four earned - and four hits. Robertson yielded three runs and four hits in one inning.

"Ramirez is capable of getting anyone out when he makes his pitches, but he just didn't make quality pitches today," Girardi said. "All the home runs the Angels hit were up in the zone, and (Ramirez) missed spots."

Giese, a native of Anaheim whose lifelong dream was to pitch at Angel Stadium, caught the Angels snoozing as he tossed six stellar innings, allowing a solo home run by Teixeira in the sixth for his only blemish. Veras squandered New York's 3-1 advantage in the seventh, serving up solo blasts by Anderson and Napoli.

"It felt good to come back here to my hometown and throw a good game in front of my family and friends," Giese said. "I know they have a good offense, so I was just trying to take it inning by inning. I felt like I pitched good and kept us in the game until the end, and that's what I'm asked to do."

A total of six players had multi-hit efforts for the Angels (73-43), who continued to build on the best record in baseball.

Scot Shields (5-3) notched a scoreless eighth after starter John Lackey was tagged for three runs and nine hits in seven innings.

"Right now, this is a fun place to be right now with the way we are playing baseball and hitting right now," Lackey said. "I made a few mistakes, but as long as you can keep those guys off the bases, you can minimize damage. I did a good job executing pitches today in tough spots."

"Lackey did a good job minimizing damage all game, and he gave us a chance to win the game," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia added. "We scrapped back into the game and put up a lot of runs in the eighth. We put good at-bats together in our big inning that helped us put the game away."

Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi hit back-to-back homers in the sixth to open the scoring before Johnny Damon laced an RBI single in the seventh to increase New York's bulge.