Yankees Pound on the Angels

That was some duel on the New York Yankee slump-o-meter this past week, the team’s recent five-game losing streak rivaled only by the shoddy play of General Manager Bob Watson.

Watson was lambasted for a trade that initially brought injured reliever Graeme Lloyd (elbow tendinitis) and utility man Pat Listach (broken foot) from Milwaukee to New York. Screamed a headline on the New York Post’s back page Saturday: “SUCKER! Shame on Watson for making deal for damaged goods.”

But the Yankees--and Watson--rebounded like Dennis Rodman Saturday night. A 14-3 shredding of the Angels in front of 28,749 in Anaheim Stadium not only kept the Yankees four games ahead of Baltimore in the American League East, but it vindicated Watson to an extent.

While Watson was trying to clean up the Lloyd/Listach mess--the Yankees received pitcher Ricky Bones as compensation for Listach, who was sent back to the Brewers, but are apparently stuck with Lloyd--he made another trade Friday that brought third baseman Charlie Hayes from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Finally, a deal that worked.

With starter Wade Boggs on the shelf because of back spasms, Hayes made it to the stadium Saturday just in time to rip two hits and knock in three runs to lead the Yankee blowout.

Hayes keyed a seven-run third inning with a two-run double to left-center field off Angel starter and loser Jason Dickson, and he added an RBI single to right-center off reliever Greg Gohr in the Yankees’ four-run fourth.

“He changed planes, changed clothes and changed leagues--that’s not easy to do,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “The pitcher usually has the advantage in that situation, but Charlie looked like he’d been around here for a while.”

The Hayes trade didn’t exactly ease tensions in the volatile New York clubhouse, where the roster seems to change by the minute.

Hayes figures to cut into Boggs’ playing time, and Boggs was not too enthused about that Friday. Asked for his reaction to the Hayes deal, Boggs snapped, “I have none.”

But Hayes, who arrived at Anaheim Stadium at 6 p.m. Saturday, an hour before the game, certainly ingratiated himself, leading a 16-hit attack.

“I don’t think there’s a controversy,” Hayes said of the third-base situation. “Wade’s been playing all year. I’m just here to fit in wherever they put me. I talked to Wade a couple of times, and he’s a great guy.”

Yankee starter Jimmy Key, showing no ill effects of the Alex Rodriguez liner off his left elbow that ended Monday’s start in Seattle after two batters, went eight innings, giving up just five hits to improve to 10-10.

The left-hander walked two and struck out three and was busy on defense, retiring seven batters on grounders back to the mound.

“Evidently they had us well-scouted,” Torre said, “and they figured the way to get to Jimmy was hit it up the middle.”

The Yankees did not homer Saturday night but got to Dickson by hammering line drives.

Dickson, whose 7-1 victory in his major league debut at Yankee Stadium Aug. 21 gave a sagging Angel rotation a boost, was a bust the second time around. The right-hander walked three and gave up four hits in the third, three of them doubles by Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams and Hayes.

Gohr didn’t fare much better, giving up four runs on four hits in the fourth, and Jason Grimsley was tagged for three runs in the seventh, two on Tim Raines’ double.

Chili Davis snapped an 0-for-15 skid with a homer in the eighth, his 27th this season and 297th of his career, and added a sacrifice fly in the sixth. George Arias also homered in the third.

The Angels, 15 1/2 games behind Texas in the AL West, managed seven hits and made three errors, and looked bad when left fielder Garret Anderson gave up too soon on Tino Martinez’s first-inning foul ball, which bounced in front of the Angel as he pulled up in foul territory.

The Angels have lost five of six to Boston and New York at home.

“The pitching has vacillated, the offense has vacillated, even the defense,” interim Manager Joe Maddon said. “We’ve made more errors this season [108] than I thought we would. You can’t pin [our struggles] on one area. We haven’t been able to put all aspects of the game together.”