Ortiz Is Electric for Angels

The Yankee Stadium scoreboard went blank in the seventh inning Friday night, a power outage in the Bronx also knocking out the public address system, the video feeds of stations carrying the game and creating what Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez called a “Twilight Zone” feel to the proceedings.

It wasn’t the only lights-out performance of the evening.

Ramon Ortiz blanked baseball’s most powerful lineup over eight innings, and closer Troy Percival completed the shutout with a scoreless ninth, as the Angels whipped the New York Yankees, 5-0, in front of 53,530, the Angels’ first shutout at Yankee Stadium since May 13, 1999.

Adam Kennedy homered in the second, the Angels scored twice in the seventh, and Garret Anderson provided insurance with a two-run homer in the ninth, as the Angels remained 1 1/2 games behind Oakland in the American League West and one game behind Boston and Texas in the wild-card race.

Ortiz, spotting his fastball on the corners and mixing in a sharp slider and changeup, gave up four hits, struck out six and walked two for his first win since June 19, calling it “my best game in the last five years in the major leagues.”

Those who witnessed Ortiz’s two-hit, complete-game masterpiece on Aug. 8, 2000, when Ortiz out-dueled fellow Dominican Pedro Martinez in a 2-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Anaheim, might dispute that.

But considering the degree of difficulty Friday night -- the Yankees lead the major leagues with 185 home runs, they had six players in the lineup with 14 homers or more, and they had been shut out only three times this season -- Ortiz could be right.

“He pitched in a tie game, then it was 1-0 for a long time, and he was going against a talented and deep lineup,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Every hitter in that lineup is a threat. He made pitches and threw a terrific game.”

Three key at-bats in the first three innings seemed to turn the game in Ortiz’s favor and gave him a confidence surge.

After walking Derek Jeter with one out and Rodriguez with two out in the first, Hideki Matsui drilled a laser over the head of right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, who made the catch near the warning track to end the inning.

Then in the third, after Jeter doubled with one out and Gary Sheffield, one of baseball’s hottest hitters, ripped a foul ball into the upper deck near the left-field pole, Ortiz struck out Sheffield swinging at a slider. Rodriguez also struck out on a slider, flinging his bat toward the dugout in disgust.

“The Yankees are great hitters, they have a great team, but tonight, I had everything,” Ortiz said. “Every pitch I throw was good -- the sinker down and away, the slider, the changeup, and Jose [Molina, Angel catcher] called a great game.”

The Angels backed Ortiz with some superb defense, Molina throwing out Jorge Posada trying to steal second in the second inning and Sheffield attempting to steal second in the sixth, and first baseman Darin Erstad making a spectacular back-hand stab of Posada’s shot down the line in the seventh and flipping to Ortiz for the out.

“We had our chances,” said Rodriguez, who entered with a .326 career average and seven home runs against Ortiz but struck out twice in three plate appearances against him Friday. “But he put a pretty good spanking on us.”

Kennedy and Anderson applied similar punishments on baseballs in the second and ninth innings, Kennedy driving his seventh homer of the season off Yankee starter Jon Lieber to right field, and Anderson crushing a full-count pitch from reliever Paul Quantrill into the right-field seats for his eighth home run and first since July 7.

Anderson has said he feels no ill effects from the arthritic condition in his upper back that sidelined him for six weeks from late April to early June, but his power has tailed off considerably. After averaging 30 homers and 120 runs batted in for four seasons, Anderson has eight homers, 41 RBIs and a .311 average in 75 games this season.

“He’s been getting hits, but he hasn’t been as productive as he can be,” Scioscia said. “He feels good. He hasn’t driven the ball with the consistency he can. It’s more important he hit well with runners in scoring position -- we need him to keep that part of his game intact -- but if he can start driving the ball, that would be icing on the cake.”