Angels top Yanks, Pettitte

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- A couple of bad innings by Andy Pettitte couldn't overcome the eight non-productive ones put forth by the Yankees' offense.

Pettitte, while not as good as he'd been his previous two starts, still kept his team in the game, but there was almost no support in a 5-1 loss to the Angels Tuesday night in front of 42,065 at Angel Stadium.

"It's a loss, I'm not happy with it,'' said Pettitte, who allowed five runs and nine hits, including two homers, in seven innings. "I can, I guess, be happy with saying I kept the bullpen out of the game for the most part. But I have to get better. That's all there is too it.''

The Yankees (26-23), after entering the series on a five-game winning streak -- accomplished against two of the worst teams in the American League in Kansas City and Oakland -- have dropped two straight to the Angels (26-25), who won their eighth in a row.

The Yankees certainly could get better with runners on base, something they struggled with even during the winning streak. In the last two games they've stranded a combined 23, and when Robinson Cano struck out with the bases loaded against hard-throwing Ernesto Frieri, it made them zero-for -their-last-15 with the bases full.

Angels starter Dan Haren (3-5, 3.52 ERA) was as good as he's been all season, allowing one run and eight hits in seven innings.

"We just weren't able to break through,'' Joe Girardi said. "And a good part of that was their defense. I mean, their defense kept us from scoring runs tonight.''

That was unquestionably true and Nick Swisher was victimized three times by spectacular plays by Angels' outfielders -- once by Mike Trout in left and twice by Peter Bourjos in center.

"What are you going to do?'' Swisher said. "I felt it was one of my better games, that I swung the bat super well . . . they got some track stars out there in center and left.''

The third act of thievery against Swisher occurred in the eighth.

Earlier in the inning Mike Scioscia replaced Haren with lefty Scott Downs to face Cano after Alex Rodriguez started the inning with his third hit. Downs got Cano to ground out and second baseman Howie Kendrick then saved a run with a diving stop on Mark Teixeira's ball up the middle that went for an infield single.

Downs struck out pinch hitter Andruw Jones and Swisher was robbed of an extra-base hit when the ridiculously fast Bourjos chased down his drive into the gap in right-center.

Bourjos also took an extra- base hit away from Swisher in the seventh, that one an even more impressive jaunt as he caught a screaming liner on the run inches from the wall in right-center. In the second, 20-year-old Trout, whose RBI triple in the third put the Angels ahead 1-0, robbed Swisher with a running catch near the top of the wall in left-center.

"He just stole it from me,'' said Swisher, who delivered an RBI single in the fourth for the Yankees' lone run.

Later in the third, after Trout's triple, the surging Albert Pujols stepped up with a man on and swatted Pettitte's 1-and-0 cutter that came in belt-high middle out to left for his ninth homer to make it 3-0. It was Pujols' first career homer in 25 at-bats against Pettitte.

"Just a stupid pitch by me,'' Pettitte said.

Pujols is hitting .308 with seven homers and 19 RBIs in his last 19 games.

"You pride yourself on keeping the ball in the yard and I keep giving up home runs,'' said Pettitte, who has allowed six in his four starts. "That's frustrating.''

A word heard in a few quarters of the clubhouse Tuesday night.