First Place, Not for Long

The Yankees swept the Twins in Minnesota, moving into a tie for first place with Boston earlier in the week, but the weekend brought three straight losses in Anaheim as the Red Sox capitalized on New York’s woes against the Halos.

On the flip side, Boston swept their final series before the All-Star break, taking a three-game division lead into the Midsummer Classic.

The Yankees continue to struggle against the American League’s elite. They are 0-8 against Boston and now 2-4 against the Angels after being swept in Southern California.

John Lackey pitched seven solid innings and the Angels knocked around CC Sabathia Sunday to complete the sweep behind a 5-4 victory.

Sunday’s loss was extra bitter after New York’s dreadful display Saturday. The Angels trailed 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth and then scored seven runs, highlighted by Brandon Wood’s two-run shot, en route to a season-high 14 runs. It was Wood’s first homer of the season and seventh of his career. The Angels went on to win 14-8.

It wasn’t the offense that failed the Bombers Saturday. It was the pitching.
Yankee starter Andy Pettitte allowed six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in the loss as the Yankees fell to 5-16 in the last 21 road games against the Angels.

Alex Rodriguez and Eric Hinske had multi-HR games and Hideki Matsui also went deep for the 14th time this season.

But it wasn’t enough.

It was the fifth time in the last 55 years the Yankees have lost a game when hitting at least five homers.

The Angels cruised, scoring 10 or more runs in back-to-back games against the Yankees. Friday, A-Rod homered for the Yankees, who failed to extend their eight-game road winning streak despite taking a 4-0 lead in the second and fell out of a first-place tie in the AL East.

Gary Matthews Jr. had an RBI single in the second for his 1,000th career hit, and former Yankee Bobby Abreu drove in a run in the fifth to cut the Yankees' lead to 5-2. The Angels never looked back, taking the ballgame, 10-6.

New York was riding high, coming off a huge holiday weekend the week before and a sweep of the Twins.

On Thursday, Mark Teixeira ended a 23-game homerless stretch and the Yankees completed a season sweep of the Twinkies with a 6-4 victory.
Unfortunately, none of that carried over to the next series, where the Angels continue to haunt the Yankees, especially on the West Coast.

The Bombers finished the Minnesota series having won 13 of their last 15 games, including another AJ Burnett gem Wednesday when the Yanks built an early lead and won 4-3 in Burnett’s fifth straight start with fewer than three earned runs.

In his previous start, Sabathia held the Twins to just three hits as the Yankees pummeled Minny 10-2 in the opener.

But once again, New York proved it still has a long way to go if it wants to compete come playoff time. Equally strong teams, like Boston and Anaheim, are doing a better job of grinding out games against the Yankees.

Nonetheless, for all the injuries and the loss of A-Rod for more than a month at the start of the season, the Yankees close out the first half neck and neck with Boston.

They look much better than they did at this point last season, and something tells me, they are on a collision course with Boston for another showdown in the American League Championship Series.