Angels end three-game losing streak with 7-1 win over Yankees

NEW YORK -- Howie Kendrick snapped an 0-for-12 slump with three hits, including a three-run home run, Vernon Wells had a homer, a single and scored twice, and Albert Pujols hit a run-scoring double Saturday to help the Angels beat the New York Yankees, 7-1, to snap a three-game losing streak.

Angels starter C.J. Wilson gave up one run and six hits in six innings, pitching out of four jams to stifle the Yankees and improve to 2-0 in two starts with the Angels, who signed the left-hander to a five-year, $77.5-million contract in December.

After Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher led off the first inning with singles, Wilson struck out Robinson Cano, retired Alex Rodriguez on a fielder’s choice grounder and got Mark Teixeira to ground to first.

With two on and one out in the fourth, Wilson retired Andruw Jones on a tapper to the mound and Russell Martin on a fly to right. The Yankees had two on with one out after Cano’s RBI single in the fifth inning, but Wilson got Rodriguez to ground to short and Teixeira to line to short.

And with runners on second and third and two outs in the sixth inning, Wilson got Jeter to fly to right on his last pitch of the game, preserving a 7-1 lead.

It looked like it might be another day of frustration for the offense when Kendrys Morales and Torii Hunter both struck out with runners on first and third to end the first inning, but the Angels scored seven runs over the next four innings to take a commanding lead.

Wells singled with one out in the second, and catcher Chris Iannetta sliced his first home run as an Angel inside the right-field foul pole for a 2-0 lead in the second. Kendrick led off the third with a single and scored when Pujols powered a double over the head of Curtis Granderson in center field.

Iannetta walked to open the fourth, Erick Aybar reached on an infield single, and Kendrick crushed a hanging cut-fastball from Phil Hughes far back into the left-center field seats for a three-run home run and a 6-0 lead.

Wells made it 7-0 in the fifth when he lined the 250^th homer of his career and second of the season to left field, the Angels (Pujols, Hunter, Bobby Abreu) joining the Yankees (Rodriguez, Teixeira, Jones, Raul Ibanez) as the only teams with four players with at least 250 homers.

The Angels bullpen was a sore spot in losses to Minnesota on Wednesday and Thursday, but Kevin Jepsen and LaTroy Hawkins each threw one-two-three innings Saturday, Jepsen in the seventh and Hawkins in the eighth, and closer Jordan Walden added a scoreless ninth.

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Angels end three-game losing streak with 7-1 win over Yankees