Angels outlast Yankees to win home run derby, 10-8

NEW YORK — The Angels didn’t outslug baseball’s most powerful team in what amounted to a regular-season version of the home run derby, but they did outlast them Sunday in a 10-8 victory in which both teams clubbed four home runs.

Angels right-hander Jered Weaver, who had allowed two earned runs in 35 2/3 innings in his previous six starts, was tagged for five runs and 10 hits, including a season-high three homers, in seven innings, but he survived the barrage to earn the victory and improve to 11-1.

The Angels broke open a one-run game with three runs off reliever Chad Qualls in the eighth, a rally Maicer Izturis started with a one-out walk. Peter Bourjos reached on a bunt single, and No. 9 batter Bobby Wilson hit a run-scoring single to left-center for a 7-5 lead.

Mike Trout’s RBI double to right-center made it 8-5, and Erick Aybar’s suicide squeeze made it 9-5. The Angels tacked on an insurance run in the ninth when Mark Trumbo lined his team-leading 24th homer of the year to left.

That provided enough of a cushion for the Angels to absorb Mark Teixeira’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off closer Ernesto Frieri, a shot to right field that snapped Frieri’s string of 26 1/3 scoreless innings over his first 26 games as an Angel.

Frieri walked Nick Swisher and was pulled in favor of left-hander Scott Downs, who gave up an infield single to Raul Ibanez. Downs, who gave up four runs in the eighth inning of Friday night’s loss, struck out pinch-hitter Andruw Jones and got Russell Martin to ground into a fielder’s choice for the second out.

Derek Jeter walked to load the bases, and Downs walked Curtis Granderson with a full-count curve in the dirt, as the Yankees cut the lead to 10-8.

Scioscia then summoned right-hander Kevin Jepsen to face Alex Rodriguez, who popped out to first to end the three-hour, 31-minute game and help the Angels avoid a three-game sweep.

Back-to-back homers by Aybar, who drove a ball into the second deck in right field, and Albert Pujols, who crushed a shot to deep left-center, gave the Angels a 2-0 lead in the first, but the Yankees quickly countered with Rodriguez’s two-run homer to right-center in the bottom of the first.

Jeter’s RBI single in the second gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead, but the Angels thwarted a rally in the third when Weaver got not one but two outs on the first-and-third pickoff play that rarely works.

After faking a move to third, Weaver spun and fired to first, where Robinson Cano drifted too far from the bag. Just as Aybar, the Angels shortstop, tagged out Cano in a rundown, Rodriguez broke for home and was thrown out to end the inning.

Singles by Kendrys Morales and Trumbo, Alberto Callaspo’s sacrifice fly to center -- which capped a 10-pitch at-bat -- and a rare two-run homer to right by Izturis, who hadn’t gone deep since last July 29, gave the Angels a 5-3 lead in the sixth.

Granderson, who made a superb running, over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track to rob Trout of a triple in the third, led off the bottom of the sixth with his team-leading 25th homer to make it 5-4.

The Angels took a 6-4 lead in the seventh when Trout doubled to center, took third on Aybar’s single to right and scored on Pujols’ double-play grounder, but the Yankees, who lead the major leagues with 141 homers, answered in the bottom of the seventh on Eric Chavez’s two-out solo homer to center.

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