Yankees hit Joel Pineiro hard in 7-1 victory over Angels
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It would be asking a lot of a pitcher not named Felix Hernandez or Josh Beckett to shut down one of the American League’s most potent lineups twice in 11 days. Joel Pineiro is not in those aformentioned pitchers’ class, and the Angels right-hander was not up to the task on Saturday.
The New York Yankees exacted a measure of revenge on Pineiro by rocking him for six runs and 11 hits in six innings of a 7-1 victory in Angel Stadium. Pineiro gave up one run and five hits, struck out seven and walked none in seven innings of a 5-3 win at Yankee Stadium on April 14.
Veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte gave up one run and six hits in eight innings, striking out eight and walking none to improve to 3-0 on the season, and Robinson Cano had four singles and scored three runs for the Yankees.
Pineiro was one out away from escaping jams in the fourth and fifth innings, but the game slipped away because of his failure to close down those innings.
With a 1-0 lead in the fourth, Alex Rodriguez and Cano singled, and the runners advanced on Nick Swisher’s sacrifice bunt. Pineiro walked Curtis Granderson intentionally to load the bases and struck out Ramiro Pena for the second out of the inning.
But No. 9 hitter and backup catcher Francisco Cervelli grounded a two-run single under the glove of diving third baseman Brandon Wood, and Derek Jeter followed with an RBI single to center for a 4-0 Yankees lead.
Pineiro gave up a lead-off triple to Brett Gardner in the fifth and nearly escaped the jam when he got Mark Teixeira to ground to second and struck out Rodriguez. But Cano drove in a run with a single to right, took second on a wild pitch and third on a passed ball before he scored on Swisher’s single for a 6-0 lead.
Gardner’s single and Teixeira’s RBI double off reliever Scot Shields made it 7-0 in the seventh, but Shields, whose control problems got him demoted to a mop-up role, retired the next three batters, one by strikeout, to finish on an encouraging note for the Angels.
--Mike DiGiovanna