Walk. Single. Single. Single.
Game over.
It's been like that a lot for the Los Angeles Angels these days.
"We're certainly sorting through some stuff here in the early going," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said after Los Angeles wasted a five-run, eighth-inning lead and lost to the New York Yankees 10-9 Friday night. "We're just obviously not getting it done right now. We need guys to get the job done and too many of them are having trouble doing that right now."
His bullpen is 1-8 with a major league-worst 7.69 ERA, a big reason the Angels are 9-13.
"I don't think I've seen anything like it, when everyone struggles at the same time," said Fuentes, who fell behind all four batters he faced and blew a save for the second time in seven chances. "Nobody's really happy down there with the way we're throwing the ball. Right now, I just need to get myself right. I need to throw more strikes, get ahead of guys, throw my secondary pitches.
New York took a 4-0 lead in the first inning as Jorge Posada hit a two-run homer
- the record-tying 29th at the new Yankee Stadium. But Andy Pettitte couldn't hold it, and the Angels scored six runs in the sixth inning and three more in the seventh.
Melky Cabrera's RBI single, Ramiro Pena's two-run single and Derek Jeter's RBI grounder off Jose Arredondo cut the deficit to 9-8 in the eighth. Then in the ninth, Fuentes (0-2) walked slumping Mark Teixeira on a 3-2 pitch leading off, and Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano singled to load the bases with no outs.
Posada got ahead 2-0 in the count, then singled to left-center on a 3-2 pitch. New York won for the sixth time in seven games at Yankee Stadium since losing the opener and stretched its winning streak to a season-high four overall.
"This shows that we can come back. We can come back against tough teams, and we do have a lot of weapons on this team that could pitch in and contribute for us," Johnny Damon said.
New York won when trailing by five runs or more at the end of the seventh for the first time since Sept. 14, 2007, when it rebounded from a 7-2 deficit to win 8-7 at Boston, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Angels hadn't lost when leading by that much after seven since blowing an 8-3 lead at the Chicago White Sox in a 9-8 loss on Sept. 1, 2000.
Jonathan Albaladejo (2-1) pitched a perfect ninth for the win.
Gary Matthews Jr. hit a three-run triple on rookie Mark Melancon's first pitch ever at Yankee Stadium for a 5-4 lead, scored on a wild pitch and drove in four runs for the Angels.
Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher bruised his right elbow when he was hit by a pitch in the first inning and left after two. X-rays were negative. The Angels' Bobby Abreu left after 6 1/2 innings because of a tight lower back.
White Sox 4, Rangers 3
Jim Thome hit a tying three-run double, and Chris Getz added the go-ahead triple for visiting Chicago.
Mark Buehrle (4-0) allowed three runs in six innings to improve to 11-3 against the Rangers. Bobby Jenks pitched the ninth and is perfect in six save chances.
Ian Kinsler hit a leadoff homer, and Michael Young had three hits for Texas.
Rays 6, Red Sox 2
Evan Longoria extended his torrid hitting against Boston pitching with a grand slam and Carlos Pena also homered, helping host Tampa Bay beat the Red Sox.
Andy Sonnanstine (1-3) allowed two runs and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings to get his first regular-season victory since Aug. 18 for the defending AL champions, who improved to 4-1 against Boston.
Longoria homered and drove in four runs for the second straight night, connecting off Justin Masterson (2-1) during Tampa Bay's six-run fifth inning.
