They Can’t Get Through Shields

The Angels refused to part with Scot Shields in a potential trade for Randy Johnson last July, and they won’t even discuss his name in talks this month with the San Francisco Giants regarding Jason Schmidt or Brett Tomko and the Florida Marlins regarding A.J. Burnett.

As if any reminder why the Angels keep a vise-like grip on the versatile reliever was necessary, the right-hander provided yet another Friday night when he bailed the Angels out of a seventh-inning jam and added a scoreless eighth to help preserve a 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Angel Stadium.

With the Angels leading, 6-3, in the seventh, Shields replaced Brendan Donnelly with runners on first and third, two out, and Gary Sheffield at the plate.

Shields got Sheffield to fly to center and retired cleanup batter Alex Rodriguez and No. 5 hitter Hideki Matsui on grounders to third to start the eighth. Jason Giambi, who hit four home runs in the previous two games, doubled to left-center, but Shields struck out Jorge Posada to end the inning.

Francisco Rodriguez added a scoreless ninth for his 23rd save, completing another impressive tag-team effort from a bullpen that leads the major leagues in stranding 61 of 78 inherited runners and has keyed the Angels’ second-half rebound.

After getting torched for 11 earned runs in 14 2/3 innings by Seattle in the Mariners’ four-game sweep before the All-Star break, the Angel bullpen has opened the second half with 23 scoreless innings in nine games, all but six of the innings thrown by Donnelly, Shields and Rodriguez.

“Their bullpen has always been good; they bring out guys from the sixth, seventh inning on who get outs,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “They have good matchups. Look at tonight. Mike [Scioscia, Angel manager] made changes after outs. Donnelly came in and did his job. Shields came in and did his job.”

Shields is the Angels’ primary setup man, the reliever who must extricate the team from its most difficult jams, and he has been both reliable and resilient, giving up 15 earned runs in 60 1/3 innings over an American League-leading 48 appearances for a 2.24 ERA.

“I can’t say enough about what Scot has done; we’ve talked about him being our most valuable pitcher,” Scioscia said. “Scot’s length makes him unique, as does his ability to bounce back and pitch multiple innings on back-to-back days. He gives us the ability to shorten games.”

Shields has held opponents to a .179 average; right-handers are batting .188 against Shields, and left-handers are batting .172 against him, important considering the Angels don’t have a left-hander in their bullpen.

“The cosmetic value of having a left-hander is only useful if he gets lefties out,” Torre said. “You look at some of those guys against left-handers, and they’re pretty impressive.”

Shields and his bullpen mates enabled starter John Lackey to improve to 8-4 Friday despite a so-so 5 1/3 -inning effort in which the right-hander gave up three runs -- two earned -- and five hits and struck out seven.

The Angel offense roughed up Yankee starter Al Leiter for four runs in the second inning en route to their sixth win in nine games, and the Angels maintained their 6 1/2 -game lead over sizzling Oakland in the AL West.

The Molina brothers, Bengie and Jose, each singled to start the second-inning rally. After Maicer Izturis walked to load the bases, Adam Kennedy hit a two-run single to right, Jose Molina scoring from second ahead of Sheffield’s throw with a nice hook slide in which he reached back and tagged the plate with his left hand.

Chone Figgins singled home another run, advancing Kennedy to third, and when Leiter’s pickoff attempt went wide of Giambi at first, Kennedy scored for a 4-1 lead.

The Angels made it 5-1 on Jose Molina’s RBI single in the third. The Yankees chipped away with runs in the fourth (Matsui RBI single) and fifth (Robinson Cano RBI double) innings, but the Angel bullpen applied the choke hold, and Darin Erstad’s RBI single provided an insurance run in the sixth.

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Great ‘Penmanship

Angel relievers have gone 23 innings since the All-Star game without giving up a run, including 3 2/3 innings by three relievers against the Yankees on Friday.

*--* PLAYER G IP H SO SV Rodriguez 6 6 2 9 6 Shields 6 7 1 5 0 Donnelly 4 4 2 2 0 Yan 2 4 1 2 0 Peralta 2 2 3 2 0 Totals -- 23 9 20 6

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