Angels, Yankees Get Infusion of Intensity

Angel shortstop David Eckstein could sense something different the moment he stepped onto the Yankee Stadium field Thursday. There’s always a little more excitement, a little more intensity, a little more buzz in New York, but this seemed to go above and beyond the call of a typical Angel-Yankee game.

“You could tell right from the beginning that the fans were into it very early,” Eckstein said. “It seems like things were a little more on edge. You can definitely tell there’s something there when you step onto the field.”

That “something” probably will return tonight when the Angels begin a three-game series against the Yankees in Angel Stadium. What already was a decent rivalry between bicoastal contenders turned downright nasty in New York last week, and those hostilities have only increased these teams’ disdain for each other.

The main event last week featured Angel left fielder Jose Guillen and Yankee reliever Paul Quantrill, who exchanged icy glares and heated words after Quantrill’s brushback pitch in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 11-2 victory Wednesday and then waged a war of words in the newspapers.

Quantrill fired the first salvo. “I told him if he wanted to join me on the mound and discuss it, he could,” Quantrill said. “If he doesn’t want to, he can shut the heck up.”

Guillen responded by challenging the Yankee right-hander to a fight. “If he’s man enough, we can take our business on the side any time he wants to,” Guillen said. “I’m not afraid of anyone, you tell him that.”

Quantrill seemed amused by Guillen’s comment. “Tell him I can fight him on the playground,” Quantrill said. “For the talent he has, he needs to get over himself. I missed the memo that said you can’t pitch Mr. Guillen inside. To me, it’s a very simple thing. You pitch inside. If you want to cry about it and stare at me, we can discuss it. He doesn’t have to act like a baby.”

Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn said the Guillen-Quantrill exchange can only fuel a rivalry between teams that will be disappointed with anything but a World Series berth this season.

“Those things have a way of stoking the fire,” Washburn said. “Some guys like to pop off in the papers, get into verbal wars -- things like that do add to a rivalry. And last week’s series did nothing to douse this rivalry.”

There were other skirmishes, as well. Several Yankee players and Manager Joe Torre thought Angel shortstop Alfredo Amezaga low-balled catcher Jorge Posada with a sidearm relay throw that hit the sliding Posada in the face Wednesday night, breaking his nose.

Posada absolved Amezaga, saying the youngster had no intention of hurting him on the attempted double play, and Amezaga apologized profusely, but the play still didn’t sit well with the Yankees.

A New York columnist also wrote Thursday that Angel Manager Mike Scioscia’s decision to send Adam Kennedy on a 3-and-2 pitch to Chone Figgins with an 8-2 lead in the eighth inning Wednesday night raised eyebrows in the Yankee clubhouse, though no player or Torre was quoted.

Scioscia made no apologies. The Yankees have a potent lineup that erased six-run deficits in wins over Seattle and Oakland in the previous week, and the Angel bullpen was thinned from last Tuesday night’s rain-delayed, 10-inning loss to the Yankees.

“If you know how stretched our bullpen was and how explosive their team is ... we were still trying to play baseball, keep the game in control,” Scioscia said. “No one was showing anyone up. With their lineup, an appropriate lead is when you have 27 outs and more runs than them.”

Though the Angel-Yankee rivalry will never match the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry for sheer hatred among players and fans, the Yankees have long cast a wary eye toward the Angels.

The Yankees won four World Series championships from 1996 through 2000 and advanced to the World Series in 2001 and 2003, but they couldn’t dominate the Angels, one of only two American League teams with a winning record (50-47) against New York since 1995.

Although many teams are in awe of the Yankees and speak of them in reverent tones -- a respect bordering on fear that has helped fuel many a Yankee victory over lesser teams -- the Angels haven’t been intimidated.

The teams have played many hard-fought, close games, many won by the Angels. And any air of Yankee invincibility was punctured when the Angels whipped them, 3-1, in an AL division series en route to winning their first World Series title in 2002.

“We always play tough games against them,” Washburn said. “They’re a great team every year, and we want to be mentioned in the same breath with them. So naturally, that’s going to cause a good rivalry.”