Yanks make monkey's uncle out of Angels with rout
VIDEO: Yanks rout Angels for 3-1 ALCS lead
ALCS Game 4: Yankees 10, Angels 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. - One more win and the Yankees will have the monkey off their backs.
The Angels and their pesky Rally Monkey did not come through last night in Game 4 of the ALCS. The Yankees' 10-1 victory put the Angels one loss from elimination with Game 5 set for Thursday night.
Scott Kazmir, pitching for the first time in nine days, allowed four runs in four-plus innings. The Angels could not come back against CC Sabathia in the middle innings despite the efforts of the scoreboard operator - who can't get enough of showing that monkey - and a red-clad monkey-loving crowd of 45,160.
The Angels, who eliminated the Yankees in the ALDS in 2002 and 2005, will turn to ace John Lackey Thursday against A.J. Burnett in an attempt to get the series back to the Bronx.
"We got beat pretty badly tonight," manager Mike Scioscia said. "It's one loss, that's it. I don't think we've had a lead early in a ballgame yet in this series. If we could start to play that type of game this could change in a hurry. Our guys are confident. There's nobody in the clubhouse that's down."
Kazmir, the former Mets prospect whom the Angels acquired from Tampa Bay on Aug. 28, came in with a 6-5 record and 2.67 ERA against the Yankees. He displayed an effective changeup, but the Yankees were able to work counts and get the lefthander's pitch count up early.
Kazmir threw three scoreless innings at the start to match Sabathia, but the difference in efficiency was glaring. Sabathia, pitching on three days' rest, only needed 29 pitches. Kazmir used 53.
The Yankees pushed across three runs in the fourth inning and Kazmir was done one batter in the fifth. Alex Rodriguez greeted reliever Jason Bulger with a two-run homer to complete Kazmir's line and make it 5-0.
"His command wasn't really what it needed to be," Scioscia said. "I think that eventually is what caught up with him. He threw a lot of pitches to get to where he was in the game. He was pitching behind a lot."
The Angels got on the board with Kendry Morales' one-out solo homer off Sabathia in the fifth. A pair of singles followed and the monkey got busy.
So did Sabathia, though, as the Angels could not get the breakthrough hit. Nor could they in the sixth, when the first two men reached. But Juan Rivera's double-play grounder to Derek Jeter started a stretch in which eight straight Angels went down.
The Yankees, meanwhile, were making a rout of it; by the eighth inning a "Let's Go Yankees" chant had sent Angels fans to the exits and the shocked monkey into hiding.
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