Angels have no luck in 5-0 loss to Yankees
NEW YORK— Ervin Santana on the mound against the New York Yankees on Friday the 13th is a bad combination for the Angels.
The Angels entered play with baseball’s worst all-time winning percentage on Friday, going 12-30 (.286) on the date that is considered bad luck for those who are superstitious, and Santana had lost his six previous starts against the Yankees.
Both trends continued Friday as the Yankees scored three runs in the first inning of their home opener and got a superb effort from Hiroki Kuroda, who allowed five hits in eight shutout innings of a 5-0 victory over the Angels before a sellout crowd of 49,386.
The game was essentially over after one tone-setting inning, the Angels failing to capitalize on Erick Aybar’s leadoff single in the first and the Yankees scoring three runs after Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson struck out to open their half of the inning.
Alex Rodriguez singled and stole second, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira walked, and Nick Swisher drove a three-run double over the head of center fielder Peter Bourjos for a 3-0 lead.
Rodriguez led off the third with a solo home run to center, his first of the season and 630th of his career, which tied him with Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth place on baseball’s all-time home run list. Curtis Granderson lined a solo homer to right in the fifth for a 5-0 lead.
The Angels, who have lost three straight to fall to 2-5 to open a season in which many predicted they would reach the World Series, advanced only two runners to second base, all against Kuroda, who retired 10 in a row before Bobby Abreu’s infield single to start the ninth.
Kuroda, who struck out six and walked two, was pulled in favor of David Robertson, who got Albert Pujols to ground into a double play and struck out Kendrys Morales to close New York’s fourth straight win.
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