Mark Teixeira hits two home runs to lead Yankees to 5-3 win over Angels
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Mark Teixeira, who will forever be known to Angels fans as ‘The One Who Got Away,’ clubbed two home runs on Sunday to lead the New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the Angels in Anaheim.
After acquiring Teixeira from Atlanta at the trade deadline in 2008, the Angels offered the switch-hitting first baseman eight years and $160 million to remain in Anaheim. But the slugger spurned the Angels to sign an eight-year, $180-million deal with the Yankees, with whom he won a World Series championship in 2009.
Teixeira hit his 17th homer of the season, a solo shot to right field, in the third inning Sunday to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
After the Angels tied the score in the third on Mark Trumbo’s solo home run, Hank Conger’s double and Maicer Izturis’ sacrifice fly, Teixeira drove a two-run shot into the right-field seats off Angels starter Joel Pineiro in the fifth inning to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. It marked the 30th multi-homer game of Teixeira’s career.
The Angels trimmed the deficit to 4-3 in the fifth on Izturis’ two-out double and Erick Aybar’s RBI single, but they failed to score in the sixth after Alberto Callaspo led off with a double. That inning ended when Izturis struck out off Yankees reliever David Robertson with the bases loaded.
Nick Swisher’s solo home run off the right-field foul pole gave the Yankees an insurance run in the eighth, and closer Mariano Rivera threw a scoreless ninth for his 16th save, getting Torii Hunter to ground into a double play with runners on first and third to end the game.
That preserved the win for former Angels ace Bartolo Colon, who allowed three runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Yankees. Colon improved to 4-3.
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