Morales' two-run HR off Joba in eighth beats Yankees, 6-4

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Before Wednesday night's game in Oakland, Yankees manager Joe Girardi anointed Joba Chamberlain his primary setup man for Mariano Rivera.

Chamberlain didn't do much to honor that decision Friday night, though, giving up a two-run homer to Kendry Morales in the eighth inning on a flat slider. It broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Angels a 6-4 victory in front of 44,002 at Angel Stadium.

It marked the first time this season the Yankees have lost two straight.

"Joba's done the job all year in that role for us," Girardi said. "He just didn't get it done tonight."

Chamberlain, who allowed an inherited runner to score in the eighth inning Wednesday night in Phil Hughes' near-no-hitter, gave up three hits in Friday's eighth, including a leadoff single to Hideki Matsui. The three outs he recorded were hard-hit balls to the outfield, too.

"It's frustrating to let your team down," Chamberlain said. "It's over with, you have to learn from it and get out there tomorrow and try to get back at it."

Brian Fuentes, who returned from the disabled list Wednesday, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save, ending a wild game that featured big hits, hit batsmen and a catcher taking the hardest hit of the night on a play at the plate.

It came in a three-run third in which the Yankees grabbed the lead after trailing 1-0 early.

They tied it at 1 when Brett Gardner - who later hurt the Yankees when he popped out on a sacrifice-bunt attempt with runners on first and second and none out in the sixth - doubled down the leftfield line and scored on Derek Jeter's own opposite-field double to make it 1-1.

After Nick Johnson struck out for the second out, Mark Teixeira got plunked on his right arm, just above where he got hit in the elbow during spring training.

Alex Rodriguez drove in Jeter with a run-scoring single and Robinson Cano lined a single to right. Third-base coach Rob Thomson didn't hesitate in sending Teixeira, who arrived at the plate as Abreu's throw did from the outfield.

The throw bounced high and got away from rookie catcher Bobby Wilson - making his first career start at 27 - as the 6-3, 220-pound Teixeira approached the plate. Wilson raised his head as he unsuccessfully tried to glove the ball and was vulnerable as Teixeira slammed into him, leading with his left shoulder. Teixeira went back and made sure he touched the plate for a 3-1 lead, never glancing at Wilson, who was sprawled in the dirt.

The two briefly were teammates in late 2008 when Teixeira was traded to the Angels by the Braves and Wilson was a September call-up.

"He's a great kid," Teixeira said. "Before the game I told him best of luck and good luck this year. I feel terrible that he got hurt but it's not about trying to hurt him, it's about trying to score the run and knock the ball loose."

Teixeira described what he saw as he rounded third.

"As soon as I came around third, I picked up Jorgie [Jorge Posada], who was telling me to slide, it was going to be a close play," Teixeira said. "I saw he was on the plate but I saw he didn't have the ball yet so I started to kind of get down to make my slide, and as soon as he turned toward me, I figured he had the ball and in that instance, the only choice I have really is to lower my shoulder and try to knock the ball loose."

A bit was made about part of the plate being open for Teixeira to slide across, but not even Angels manager Mike Scioscia, a former catcher who was known for his plate-blocking ability, thought Teixeira made anything but a solid, hard baseball play.

"No doubt about it," Scioscia said. "Clean play."

Needless to say, Girardi saw it the same way.

"I've been run over a lot of times and hard slides . . . It's a part of the trade," said Girardi, who recalled John Kruk giving him the hardest shot he ever took, one that broke his nose. "Your job as catcher is to block the plate and try to keep the run from scoring. Sometimes you get run over. I have had my nose broken, my shoulder separated. It's all part of the game as a catcher."

Teixeira said that had Wilson not been turning, he might have attempted some kind of hook slide.

"If he's not going toward me, that's what I was going to do," Teixeira said. "You can kind of see I kind of went down, I was going to do one of those side slides, but as soon as he started going toward me, I figured he had the ball, he was going to block the plate so . . . "

Teixeira later said: "It's not like I propelled myself into him."

Wilson, who was helped to the dugout and replaced by Mike Napoli, suffered a left ankle injury and a concussion and was taken to a local hospital for a CT scan and an X-ray.

A.J. Burnett recovered after an erratic first three innings to last 61/3, giving up four runs and nine hits. Angels starter Ervin Santana allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings.

Burnett struggled in a 21-pitch first inning, missing the plate with plenty of pitches - he walked leadoff man Erick Aybar on five pitches before he was caught stealing - and seeing several balls that did find the plate hit hard, such as Bobby Abreu's double.

Burnett did get out of the inning allowing just one run on Morales' sky-high chop that he beat out for a two-out hit as Abreu scored.

Burnett surrendered the 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third. Abreu led off with a double off the wall in right-center. Torii Hunter ripped a grounder down the line that Rodriguez stopped while diving to his right, but his throw bounced off Teixeira's chest, allowing Abreu to move to third. A-Rod was charged with a hard-luck error.

Matsui, 2-for-11 in the three-game series in the Bronx, grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, which brought in Abreu to make it 3-2.

Burnett could not get out of the inning, however. He walked Morales, then allowed an RBI double to Juan Rivera that tied it at 3. The third double of the inning followed, this one by Maicer Izturis, to give the Angels a 4-3 lead.

The Yankees came right back to tie in the fourth, doing so on Nick Swisher's second homer of the year, a bomb to center on a 1-and-0 pitch.

Burnett settled down after the third inning, shutting out the Angels for the next 31/3 innings before giving way to David Robertson with one out in the seventh.

"I threw the ball over the plate too much tonight, and they hit it," said Burnett, who still is struggling to find his curveball. "I left some balls over the middle early on. I have to go out and shut them down."