Angels caught with Scot Shields down, 10-6
Reporting from New York — Scot Shields was just beginning to regain the confidence of Manager Mike Scioscia, the veteran reliever rebounding from a rocky two months to give up one earned run in 11 innings of eight appearances from June 15 to Tuesday.
Then came the seventh inning in Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.
The Angels had erased five runs of a six-run deficit with the help of Bobby Wilson’s two-run homer in the fifth and Hideki Matsui’s two-run shot in the sixth, and they threatened to tie or move ahead in the sixth and seventh, leaving the bases loaded in each inning.
Shields replaced starter Joel Pineiro in the seventh and struck out New York’s Robinson Cano to open the inning.
The next four batters went homer (Juan Miranda), single (Curtis Granderson), single (Francisco Cervelli), three-run homer (Colin Curtis), the Yankees pulling away for a 10-6 victory.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Shields, who has struggled to regain his form after sitting out most of 2009 because of left-knee surgery. “I still think I have things figured out. I just had a bad game.”
Curtis was an unlikely hero, having spent most of the 88-degree afternoon on the bench. But when Brett Gardner was ejected for arguing a strike call with two on in the seventh, Curtis was sent to the plate with an 0-and-2 count.
Shields threw three balls, all up and away, and then elevated a fastball that Curtis drove 368 feet over the right-field wall for his first career homer and a 10-5 lead.
“It’s tougher for him to come into that situation than me,” said Shields, whose earned-run average jumped from 4.70 to 5.68. “He came in with an 0-2 count. If I make my pitches, I think I have him. I tried to throw a strike and left it up and over.”
The Angels were over and out, their backs broken by the four-run outburst. In what seemed like a cruel twist, the Angels scored in the eighth on Maicer Izturis’ pinch-hit single, Howie Kendrick’s double and Bobby Abreu’s RBI groundout.
Scioscia said he considered batting Izturis for Kevin Frandsen in the seventh, but he stuck with Frandsen because the third baseman had singled in his two previous at-bats. Frandsen grounded out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
With the bases loaded in the sixth, Kendrick smashed a hard line drive at right fielder Nick Swisher for the final out.
“We were one hit or some luck away from tying the game,” center fielder Torii Hunter said. “What if Howie’s liner was to the right or to the gap? We would have scored two or three runs. Then they scored four … I don’t think I’ve ever seen that, where a guy comes up with two strikes and hits a home run.”
Pineiro (10-7) had won seven consecutive decisions entering the game, posting a 2.51 ERA during the stretch, but he was roughed up for six runs and 11 hits in six innings and suffered his first loss since June 1.
The first three Yankees batters, Derek Jeter, Swisher and Mark Teixeira, did most of the damage, combining for eight hits in nine at-bats, five runs and three RBIs in the first four innings. Teixeira’s two-run single, and Cano’s two-run homer highlighted a four-run third.
“Everything was up in the zone, the changeup, the curveball, and even the sinker,” said Pineiro, who gave up one run and five hits in seven innings of a 5-3 win in Yankee Stadium on April 14. “I had to find a way to get the ball down. I was able to do that later in the game, but it was a little too late.”
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
