Game 50 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 LAA 5

(Whaddaya know?  Another HR for this guy.  Courtesy of The AP)

A couple of horrible innings from Phil Hughes and a couple of horrible pitches from Andy Pettitte ended the Yankees' winning streak and got them started on a new losing streak.  They were looking to get a rare win in Anaheim to avoid a sweep last night, and get things going back in the right direction before starting their trek back to the East Coast, but having Ivan Nova on the mound in that situation wasn't exactly the optimal option given his struggles this season.

Game Notes:

- Nova didn't waste any time making a mess for himself in the bottom of the 1st, hitting, giving up a single to, and walking the first 3 Angel batters. In a pleasantly surprising turn of events, Nova managed to limit the damage to just a single run on a sac fly.

- After stranding a RISP in the 1st and guys on the corners in the 2nd, the Yankees finally struck gold against Ervin Santana in the 3rd.  Russell Martin led off with a walk (the one thing he has been doing at the plate), Jeter singled, and Curtis Granderson (who doubled in the 1st) hit a 3-2 fastball over the heart of the plate for a 3-run HR to right-center and the Yankees led 3-1.

- After a free pass to A-Rod, Robinson Cano stepped in and launched a 1-2 fastball on the inner half into the right field seats and just like that it was 5-1 Yanks.  Santana was missing badly with everything and didn't look much longer for the game.

- Escaping the 1st inning bases loaded situation seemed to settle Nova, as he worked through the next 2 innings quickly and efficiently.  He was locating his fastball down in the zone and getting groundball outs.

- But in the 4th, he hit a pretty big pothole.  Nova walked Kendrys Morales on 5 pitches to start the inning, then gave up Mark Trumbo's third HR of the series to make it 5-3.  A pair of singles and a 2-RBI double by Mike Trout later, and it was a tie game again.

- Ervin Santana was pretty awful against New York as usual, but give him credit for getting through the 5th and not allowing any more runs.  In fact, after the 3rd inning the Yankees only put 1 more runner on base for the remainder of the game.  That runner was Raul Ibanez, who tripled and scored on a sac fly by Swish in the 6th, so it was an important runner.

- Nova battled his way through 6.2 innings of work, fighting his fastball and curveball command the whole time, but he held the Angels at 5 before turning the game over to the bullpen.  Cory Wade got 4 big outs (3 of them via K), and Rafael Soriano picked up the save despite putting 2 more runners on base.

F*ck Yeahs:

- C-Grand: 2-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 K.  Curtis did a great job working the count full in his AB in the 3rd, and he was looking fastball all the way.  Miss over the middle of the plate with a fastball to a great fastball hitter in a fastball count and bad things are going to happen.

- Wade: 1.1 IP, 0s, 3 K, H.  Boone Logan was in before Wade and put 2 runners on with 2 outs before Wade entered the game in the 7th.  These were big-time outs that Wade got last night and he looked good doing it.  Nice bounce back after the walk-off HR on Monday.

Oh Nos:

- Mark Teixeira: 0-4.  They can't all be winners.

- Eric Chavez: 0-4, 1 K, 2 LOB.  I feel like he hasn't done anything in a while.  A sub-.300 OBP is very un-Chavez.

Next Up:

Another scheduled off day today so the Yankees can travel to Detroit for a weekend series.  That series starts Friday night with CC on the mound.