Angels Trail, 6-0, Then Beat Yankees in 12

Turmoil? The New York Yankees have survived it before.

Talent? The lack of enough of it on the mound could prove fatal.

Bolting into a 6-0 lead, the troubled Yankees couldn’t hold it Friday night.

Starter Rick Rhoden, in a performance characteristic of the patchwork rotation, left in the sixth inning, his 6-0 lead reduced to 6-5.

Then, clinging to that lead and within one pitch of victory, inconsistent reliever Dave Righetti saw Tony Armas, who had homered four times on the Angels’ recent 13-game trip, hammer his 12th of the season to tie the game, 6-6, and send it into extra innings, much to the glee of an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 44,293.

The Angels then won it, 7-6, in the 12th on an infield single by Bob Boone, a bunt single by Dick Schofield and a two-out single to center field by Johnny Ray, all off Steve Shields.

The Angels collected 17 hits in making their biggest comeback of the season.

Jack Lazorko, Sherman Corbett, Greg Minton and Bryan Harvey shut out the Yankees on 7 hits over the final 9 innings, allowing the Angels to recover from a Yankee advantage built against Willie Fraser, who was chased in a five-run third inning.

The loss, the Yankees’ sixth in their last eight games, dropped them 5 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the American League East. It was also the seventh time the Yankees had lost after leading with two outs in the ninth.

The Yankees traveled West in the middle of a week that opened with Don Mattingly criticizing Yankee owner George Steinbrenner for creating an atmosphere in which the players get no respect.

Steinbrenner responded with a prepared statement that said Mattingly was speaking out of the frustration of his disappointing season and that while he (Steinbrenner) is a convenient target for the players’ blame, he isn’t the one making errors, leaving runners in scoring position, pitching poorly or “making millions of dollars a year for playing a game.”

Then, on Thursday, a New York theatrical agent, Bill Goodstein, claimed that he has been talking with Steinbrenner and the Yankees about the possibility of Reggie Jackson returning to the team. Jackson, who is not represented by Goodstein, denied it, as did the Yankees.

Amid these daily earthquakes, the Yankees have struggled to stay alive in their division by attempting to overcome an even greater problem, the expected shortage of starting pitching.

This went beyond the past week. In the 23 games before Friday night’s series opener, Yankee starters were 2-13 with a 6.12 earned-run average. Since June 6, the club was 32-40.

Against the Angels, however, the Yankees came across a familiar tonic in the form of Fraser’s fastball.

Having hit five home runs off Fraser in a 15-6 loss to the Angels Aug. 16, the Yankees chased Fraser in the third inning of this one, building that 6-0 lead for Rhoden, who had lost his last four decisions, allowing 16 earned runs in 27 innings.

Fraser, who had won his last four decisions, was in trouble from the start. Rickey Henderson opened the game with a single, took second on a balk and scored on a two-out single by Dave Winfield, a prelude to the third inning, when the Yankees sent 10 batters to the plate.

Joel Skinner opened that inning with a double. Henderson walked. Claudell Washington ripped a two- run double to right center. Mattingly singled to score Washington. Winfield reached base when third baseman Jack Howell bobbled his ground ball.

Ken Phelps advanced the runners with a ground out. Angel Manager Cookie Rojas ordered an intentional walk to Mike Pagliarulo, loading the bases, but Rafael Santana spoiled the strategy with a two-run single to center, chasing Fraser in favor of Lazorko. Randy Velarde flied to center, and Skinner struck out.

It was the Yankees’ last hurrah. Lazorko, Corbett, Minton and Harvey shut them down as the Angels battled back.

Joyner doubled, and Brian Downing singled home the Angels’ first run in the third inning.

Joyner singled in a run, and Chili Davis hit a sacrifice fly to produce another in the fifth. Boone doubled, and Schofield slugged his sixth home run to chase Rhoden and get the Angels within 6-5 in the sixth.

The Angels were still down by the one run with two out in the ninth when Armas connected against Righetti.

Angel Notes

The Angels and the Edmonton Trappers of the Pacific Coast League are close to ending their six-year affiliation. Angel minor league director Bill Bavasi is currently searching for a triple-A affiliate with easier traveling access to Orange County. . . . Dan Petry, who has made three rehabilitation appearances at Palm Springs, is expected to come off the Angels’ disabled list Thursday, when the 24-player roster limit is lifted. . . . John Candelaria, the Yankees’ leading winner at 13-7, threw before the game in a test of his ailing right knee and has been scratched from a scheduled start Monday in Seattle. Candelaria has torn cartilage in his right knee and could be out for the season.