Angels Hit Road and Get Tripped

The Angels got mugged in the Bronx on Tuesday night. There were 25,816 witnesses, but not one cop willing to put a stop to it.

The Yankees’ 9-2 victory over the Angels was neat, swift and thorough. The Yankees received superb pitching from right-hander David Cone and smacked Angel starter Dennis Springer’s knuckleball all over Yankee Stadium.

One rout against the defending World Series champions probably isn’t enough to rob the Angels of all their momentum. After all, it was only their second loss in the past 14 games. But it certainly wasn’t the most encouraging way to begin what figures to be their most important trip of the season.

At any rate, the Angels didn’t have long to put Tuesday’s defeat behind them. They faced the Yankees again at 10 a.m. (PDT) today as their 11-game, nine-day trip to New York, Boston and Cleveland continued.

“One of those nights,” Manager Terry Collins said.

It also was an easy one to forget.

Cone handled the Angels with ease through 7 2/3 innings, holding them to three hits until tiring in the eighth. The Yankees scored one run in the first inning and five in the second, and that was it. Game over.

“We got beat--plain and simple,” Collins said. “It might have been different if it was 1-1 against David Cone in the ninth and you lose and you think about all the missed opportunities.”

It was difficult to rue blown chances while facing a 6-0 deficit after two innings and 9-0 after five. Better to think about today and a bit of redemption against Yankee starter Dwight Gooden.

“If you give [Cone] a six-run lead, even if he doesn’t have his best stuff, he can still really pitch effectively,” said Angel catcher Jim Leyritz, a former Yankee who had one of the Angels’ five hits. “You just don’t want to get down six runs against him.”

Leyritz didn’t believe Cone had particularly overpowering stuff, but benefited from what he believed was a rather liberal strike zone called by plate umpire Dan Morrison.

When asked why Cone (11-4) was so tough to hit, Leyritz joked: “It could have been the 26-inch plate he had. He got a free strike zone and he used it well. Guys like Cone and Jimmy Key have been around and they get a little better treatment.”

Springer (5-4) could have used a break, but his pitches kept getting hammered toward the outfield fences before Morrison could rule them a ball or a strike.

Springer gave up nine runs, the most by an Angel starter this season, on eight hits with four walks and two strikeouts.

Sometimes his knuckleball danced and baffled the Yankees. But more often it did nothing except float lazily toward the plate.

“At times, I had a good enough knuckleball and at other times I didn’t have anything,” said Springer, who lost for only the second time in nine starts.

The first inning was a case in point. After retiring the first two batters, Springer gave up consecutive doubles to Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez and trailed, 1-0.

In the second inning, Pat Kelly hit a three-run homer off Springer and O’Neill followed with a solo homer to highlight a five-run inning.

In the fifth, Wade Boggs produced a run-scoring double, former Angel Chad Curtis knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and Joe Girardi added a run-scoring single.

“Looking at the pitching chart, I think I threw too many fastballs [because the knuckleball wasn’t working],” Springer said. “I made some bad pitches.”

The Angels ended Cone’s shutout bid with Tim Salmon’s two-run single with two out in the eighth. Yankee Manager Joe Torre had seen enough by then, replacing Cone with reliever Graeme Lloyd.

Cone left to a standing ovation, but didn’t give himself particularly high marks for his performance.

“I didn’t feel like I had a good fastball early, then I got it in the middle of the game, but lost it again in the eighth,” Cone said. “I mixed up my pitches. I had a big lead early and that was nice.”

Cone has given up five earned runs only once this season, so a six-run lead after two innings seemed like a mortal lock for the Yankees.