Bullpen Nails Down a Victory for Escobar

There was one sizable bullpen slip followed by another little blip, but Angel relievers -- most notably, setup man Scot Shields -- found their bearings just in time to preserve a well-deserved win for starter Kelvim Escobar on Friday night.

With the bases loaded, one out and one of baseball’s most dangerous hitters at the plate, Shields got Gary Sheffield to bounce into a double play to end the seventh inning, and the Angels held on for a 4-1 victory over the New York Yankees before a record crowd of 44,221 in Angel Stadium.

Shortstop Orlando Cabrera hit a two-run home run in the first inning, and Darin Erstad and Juan Rivera added run-scoring singles in the fourth and fifth to back Escobar, who gave up one run and six hits in six innings despite splitting the nail on the middle finger of his throwing hand in the second inning, an injury that could affect his next start.

“It’s not looking good right now -- hopefully it can heal up before my next game,” said Escobar, whose sixth-inning strikeout of Jason Giambi was the 1,000th of his career. “But I didn’t even know I did it during the game. It didn’t bother me until the sixth inning.”

Escobar left after six innings with a 4-1 lead and was replaced by J.C. Romero, the new Angel left-hander who bailed starter Bartolo Colon out of a jam in Monday’s opener.

But Friday night, Romero created a mess of his own, following a strikeout of Robinson Cano with walks to No. 9 hitter Bernie Williams and leadoff batter Johnny Damon in front of the heart of the order -- Derek Jeter, Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez.

Manager Mike Scioscia did not hesitate going back to his bullpen for Shields, who walked Jeter to load the bases. But Sheffield, on a 2-and-2 inside fastball, sent a broken-bat grounder to third baseman Chone Figgins, who threw to second to start an inning-ending double play.

“That seventh inning was a little hairy,” Scioscia said. “That’s a recipe for disaster when you walk three guys in one inning. But Shields made a great pitch to get Sheffield, and Figgy did a nice job starting the double play.”

Shields set up Sheffield with a 1-2 breaking ball that was down and away. His next pitch jammed Sheffield and shattered his bat.

“Shields was an All-Star for that reason,” Damon said. “He threw a couple outside, got him thinking out there, and then he came in hard.”

Said Escobar: “That was a huge key to the game right there. The bags are juiced, Sheffield is up, there’s one out. Shields did a great job.”

Shields added a scoreless eighth, and closer Francisco Rodriguez retired the side in order in the ninth for his 20th consecutive save, tying a franchise record set by Troy Percival in 2003.

The Angels are now 50-48 against the Yankees since 1996 -- they’re the only team with a winning record against them in the Joe Torre era -- and they’ll probably continue to have success against the Yankees if they pitch as well as they did Friday night.

But the Angels mixed in a little timely offense too. Figgins led off the first inning with a double past the diving Jason Giambi at first, and Yankee starter Shawn Chacon seemed so preoccupied with preventing Cabrera from advancing Figgins to third, he made a costly mistake that led to a 2-0 Angel lead.

Cabrera fouled off two outside pitches in an attempt to hit a grounder to the right side, and on a 2-and-2 pitch, Chacon tried to sneak a fastball inside. Cabrera turned on the pitch, lofting it over the wall in left field for a two-run home run.

The Angels made it 3-0 in the third when Garret Anderson hit a one-out single to center, took second on Rivera’s bloop single to left-center and scored on Erstad’s ground-ball single to right.

The Yankees pulled to within 3-1 in the top of the fifth when Williams reached on a one-out infield single and scored on Damon’s double.