Colon Cures Yankee Slump

Bartolo Colon insists the shoulder he injured in October is OK and the groin he tweaked last week is fine. He doesn’t feel he’s overthrowing, as his manager suggested Sunday. He gets along fine with his rookie catcher. There’s no pressure to live up to his Cy Young Award-winning 2005 standards. His stuff, he says, is good.

About the only thing the Angel ace could pinpoint as a possible reason for Sunday’s struggles was a grip he described as being “too hard,” which might have affected his release point, his command and his rhythm.

The New York Yankees’ response to Colon’s issues?

Grip and rip.

Alex Rodriguez continued his mastery of Colon, jump-starting a sagging offense and breaking out of his own funk with a home run to spark a five-run second inning, and Jorge Posada added two homers, a double and five runs batted in to lead the Yankees to a 10-1 romp in front of a sellout crowd of 44,020 in Angel Stadium.

Colon was tagged for eight runs -- seven earned -- and seven hits in two innings, his shortest regular-season outing since Oct. 4, 2001, when he went 1 1/3 innings for the Cleveland Indians against Kansas City.

And though he received a no-decision during his so-so opener in Seattle, when he gave up three runs in five innings last Monday, Colon has been rocked for 11 runs and 10 hits, including three home runs, in his last three innings of work.

Not exactly the start the Angels were expecting from a guy who was 21-8 with a 3.48 earned-run average last season.

“Bart had an incredible year last year, and it will fall into place for him,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He relies on command as much as velocity, and right now his command is a little off.... There’s going to be some rough edges until he’s totally locked in, but there’s nothing that leads us to have any level of concern with him.”

Colon retired the first 10 Mariners he faced and gave up two infield singles through four innings last Monday before falling apart in a three-run, five-hit fifth. That pattern continued Sunday; he retired the side in order in the first before being bombed in the second.

Perhaps the sight of Rodriguez leading off the second made Colon skittish. The Yankee third baseman hit three home runs and drove in nine runs in his first three at-bats against Colon in Yankee Stadium last April 26, and he entered with a career .442 mark and seven homers in 43 at-bats against Colon.

Rodriguez ended an 0-for-12 skid by driving a knee-high fastball over the wall in center field for his 431st home run, tying Cal Ripken Jr. for 37th on the all-time list.

Jason Giambi singled to right, and Colon bobbled Hideki Matsui’s dribbler toward third for an error. Posada then ripped a 94-mph fastball into the right-field seats for a 4-0 lead, and Robinson Cano singled and scored on Derek Jeter’s double to right to cap the rally.

“Bart was hitting his spots early, but then he tried to force a couple of pitches,” Scioscia said. “He might have been overthrowing a bit. That Posada at-bat, the pitch was supposed to be away, and he yanked it right into the hitting zone.”

After Giambi’s walk, Matsui’s single and Posada’s run-scoring double to start the third, Scioscia pulled Colon in favor of Esteban Yan, who yielded a two-run double to Cano, which gave New York an 8-0 lead.

Yankee starter Mike Mussina gave up one run and five hits in six innings for the win. Colon faced 16 batters, retiring six.

Even last season, when the Angels had two-time Gold Glove-winning catcher Bengie Molina, Colon preferred throwing to Jose Molina, but with Jose having caught four of the Angels’ first five games this season, Scioscia turned to Jeff Mathis Sunday. It was Mathis’ second big-league start.

“Jeff is going to be a very good catcher, and I feel very comfortable with him,” Colon said through an interpreter. “I can’t blame whoever put the signs down because I was the one making pitches, and they were very bad pitches.”