Yanks fall to Angels, 5-4, in 11th inning of Game 3
Photo credit: AP | The Angels' Howie Kendrick celebrates scoring the winning run in the 11th inning of Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees as fireworks go off in the background.
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ANAHEIM, Calif. - Mike Scioscia knows it doesn't take much for the momentum of a series to be altered. "These type of series, they change in a heartbeat," the Angels manager said Monday morning.
Then Jeff Mathis and Vladimir Guerrero gave the Angels exactly that - a heartbeat - in ALCS Game 3 that afternoon.
After a highly questionable pitching change by Yankees manager Joe Girardi, Mathis hit a walk-off RBI double off Alfredo Aceves with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Angels a 5-4 victory.
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Los Angeles, which was behind 3-0 after 41/2 innings yesterday, trails 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. CC Sabathia, pitching on three days' rest, faces Scott Kazmir in Game 4 tonight.
The Yankees consoled themselves by saying the series has matched their expectations, but underneath that verbiage was the recognition of how close they came to putting a near-hammerlock on the ALCS.
"We much rather would be up three-nothing," Johnny Damon said. "Just a lot of missed opportunities. And in the playoffs, momentum can definitely swing. Hopefully, we can stop it tomorrow with a big win."
Said Girardi: "This is the type of series we expected it to be. We've had two extra-inning games out of three games. They've been hard-fought games. Tomorrow's a new day and we'll be back."
Presumably, however, a large number of Yankees fans would like him to leave the hook at home after what occurred in the 11th. David Robertson easily recorded the first two outs before Girardi brought in Aceves to face Howie Kendrick. Kendrick lined a 3-and-1 pitch to center for a single and scored on Mathis' long double off the leftfield wall, easily beating Melky Cabrera's desperate throw home.
It was the second double in two innings for Mathis, who hit .211 with 13 extra-base hits in 237 at-bats in the regular season.
"We just liked the matchup better. I'm not going to get into the specifics as to why," pitching coach Dave Eiland said of Kendrick vs. Aceves. "We just liked the matchup better. Ace had him right where we wanted to. He just couldn't make the pitch to put him away."
Neither Girardi nor Eiland second-guessed the move, which Robertson admitted to being "a little" surprised at. Kendrick was 1-for-2 against him; he had never faced Aceves. "He's got a plan in mind, and I'm going with whatever he does," Robertson said.
The Yankees hit four solo home runs, by Derek Jeter (on the third pitch of the game), Alex Rodriguez, Damon and Jorge Posada. The first three gave them a 3-0 lead after 41/2 innings, but after Kendrick homered in the fifth and Guerrero hit a two-out, two-run shot off Andy Pettitte in the sixth, the score was tied at 3. Posada's homer tied it at 4 in the eighth.
Pettitte allowed three runs and seven hits in 61/3 innings and was irritated about the homer he surrendered to Guerrero. "I just missed my location," he said. "Just didn't make my pitch."
Mariano Rivera did in the 10th, escaping first-and-third, none-out and bases-loaded, one-out jams to keep it tied.
For the Yankees, it was a feeling not experienced much this season - losing on a walk-off. The Yankees, who won that way in ALCS Game 2, had 15 walk-off wins in the regular season and lost four times in that manner.
"It's no good, there's no doubt about it," Pettitte said. "You hate to lose one like this. Guys just battled so hard. You know these guys [the Angels] weren't going to give up; that's why this was so important. We wanted to get this one. Unfortunately, we didn't."
It was the second straight extra-inning game the teams have played, with Girardi using seven relievers in each game. "I'm comfortable," he said. "We didn't really stretch out any of our pitchers too far today out of the bullpen. So I believe our guys will be fine tomorrow."
Mark Teixeira, off to a 1-for-13 start to the series, said the Yankees - who left 10 on base, were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and failed to take advantage of two early first-and-third, one-out situations - will be fine as a whole.
"Anyone who thought we were going to breeze through this series is crazy," Teixeira said. "This is a great team over there and they came to play today. We'll put it behind us and go get 'em tomorrow."
The Yankees were outhit 13-8 and struck out 13 times against six Angels pitchers. They quickly got in trouble in the 10th inning when Mathis led off with a double into the gap in left-center off Phil Hughes, and it quickly became even worse.
Girardi called for Rivera to face Erick Aybar, who bunted to the third-base side. Rivera had time to get Mathis at third, but he threw the ball in the dirt as he fell and the ball couldn't be handled by Rodriguez. Only a good backup by Damon prevented the winning run from scoring.
With runners at the corners and nobody out, Chone Figgins hit a ground smash to Teixeira, who tagged first and held Mathis at third. The Yankees intentionally walked Bobby Abreu to load the bases and bring up Torii Hunter. Rivera fell behind 2-and-0 before Hunter smacked a grounder to Teixeira, who fired home for the second out. Guerrero then grounded out to Teixeira.
The Angels grabbed a 4-3 lead in the seventh as Kendrick tripled off Joba Chamberlain and scored on a sacrifice fly by Maicer Izturis.
But in the eighth, after the Angels pitched out and threw out Brett Gardner attempting to steal second, Posada tied it at 4 with a solo homer to dead center. The total of six home runs tied an ALCS record.
The Angels threatened to break the 4-4 tie in their half of the eighth. Abreu greeted Phil Coke with a drive into the gap in right-center, and as centerfielder Cabrera picked up the ball at the base of the wall, Abreu had eyes for third. He stormed around second, then suddenly retreated and attempted to scamper back to second, but Jeter - who had taken Cabrera's relay throw - tossed to Teixeira, who easily tagged out Abreu.
The first of the Yankees' four home runs came early, as Jeter hammered Jered Weaver's 2-and-0 pitch to left-center for his 20th career postseason home run. The Yankees made it 2-0 in the fourth as Rodriguez, who had a 1.091 slugging percentage at Angel Stadium this season, led off by launching Weaver's 3-and-1 pitch to left for his fourth homer and ninth RBI in six games this postseason.
Damon, who went 1-for-12 in the Division Series but had three hits in the first two games of this series, turned on Weaver's 0-and-1 pitch in the fifth and hooked it just over the 330-foot sign in right to make it 3-0. At that point, the Yankees had outhomered their opponents 11-0 this postseason.
But during the regular season, the Angels erased three four-run deficits and a five-run deficit in four different games against the Yankees, and they came back in this one, too.
Kendrick blasted a solo shot to left in the fifth to cut the Yankees' lead to 3-1.
Abreu snapped his 0-for-11 skid this series with a one-out single to right in the sixth. With Chamberlain warming up, Guerrero, 10-for-24 in his career against Pettitte, came to the plate. With the count 2-and-2, Girardi came out of the dugout for a mound meeting with his pitcher and catcher. One pitch later, the score was tied.
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