Chris Carlson/AP
Yankees' Raul Ibanez (r.) celebrates with Eric Chavez after scoring on Nick Swisher's sacrifice fly during the sixth inning.
YANKEES 6, ANGELS 5
ANAHEIM - Mark Trumbo was at the plate in the ninth inning Wednesday night, hoping to crush the Yankees' spirit for the second time in three days.
This time, however, the Bombers' bullpen got the job done against the Angels slugger, as Rafael Soriano retired him to nail down a 6-5 win in the series finale.
Soriano wasn't the only reliever to record a crucial out, as Cory Wade - who served up Trumbo's walk-off homer Monday - struck out Howie Kendrick with runners at the corners to end the seventh, then breezed through a perfect eighth.
"Huge out in the seventh, three big outs in the eighth and a nice job by Sori after they got a couple guys on," Joe Girardi said. "It's the difference in the game, what our bullpen did. A nice job by everybody."
The Yankees snapped the Angels' eight-game winning streak, allowing them to leave Southern California on a high note. The Yankees don't play in Anaheim again during the regular season, though the two teams will meet again in the Bronx right after the All-Star break.
The Yankees finish the West Coast portion of their nine-game road trip with a 4-2 record, as they'll take Thursday off before playing three against the Tigers in Detroit this weekend.
"It's nice; 4-2 so far on this road trip sounds a lot better than 3-3," Girardi said. "It's perspective; if you start off 0-3 and end up 3-3, you're pretty happy. But starting out 3-0 and the way we lost Monday, it's a nice win."
Nick Swisher's sacrifice fly in the sixth proved to be the winning run, though Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano provided the bulk of the scoring with home runs in the Yankees' five-run third inning against Ervin Santana.
Ivan Nova picked up his sixth win of the season despite an ugly pitching line, giving up five runs on eight hits and three walks over 6 2/3 innings.
"It's hard when you're not pitching good, especially when you know that you're better than what you're showing right now," Nova said. "It's really hard for me. So I think I have to enjoy this win today; the team won, that's the most important thing."
Nova was staked to a big lead in the third inning on the two home runs, but he was unable to hold it for long. The Angels scored four times in the fourth to tie the game, the second time in three days they quickly erased a sizeable Yankees lead.
"I thought he did a good job after that," Girardi said. "He left some pitches up that they hit, but I thought he ended up on a good note and got us into the seventh inning."
Nova held the Angels to one run in the first after loading the bases before he recorded an out, but the Yankees broke out in the third, exploding for five runs against Santana to seize control of the game.
Granderson's homer, a three-run shot, was his 16th of the season. Cano added a two-run shot two batters later, his eighth.
"Nice at-bat by Grandy to work the count and finally get a fastball to hit the three-run homer, then Robbie Cano to hit the two-run homer," Girardi said. "You take that inning away and you take Nova's bad inning away, we might still be playing."
That bad inning from Nova came in the fourth, starting with Trumbo's two-run blast, his third of the series.
Erick Aybar hit a one-out single and Bobby Wilson bunted his way on with two outs, bringing Mike Trout to the plate. The rookie belted a two-run double to right-center, bringing the Angels all the way back to tie the game at 5.
A rare triple by Raul Ibanez started a rally in the sixth, allowing Swisher's fly ball to left to score him for a 6-5 lead.
"They ran balls down all week long on us and played tremendous," Girardi said of Trout and Peter Borjous, the Angels' speedy outfielders. "On the triple by Raul, if you have a slower center fielder, he might pull up. He was pretty close to getting it and we ended up getting the triple, so in the one instance, it might have cost them."
Nova worked into the seventh before Girardi went to Boone Logan with two out and nobody on base. Logan allowed a pair of singles by Kendrys Morales and Trumbo, but Wade came in and fanned Kendrick on a big curveball, slamming his fist into his glove three times as he held on to the one-run lead.
"You're not going to be able to go out and get guys out all the time or everybody could do this game," Wade said. "It's part of it. You're going to come in situations like that and you're going to have to be able to forget it when you give up home runs like that. It happens to everybody but the key is to come back and do the job next time."
That wouldn't be the final scare for the Yankees, as Soriano walked Alberto Callaspo with one out in the ninth, putting the tying run on base for Albert Pujols.
Pujols hit a grounder up the middle for a single, but Jeter stopped it before it reached the outfield, holding the lead runner at second base. Torii Hunter hit a grounder to Alex Rodriguez, who tagged Callaspo for the second out. Trumbo tried to play the role of hero again, but Soriano got him to hit a shallow fly ball to left to end the game, earning his sixth save.
"Good win," Russell Martin said. "It's not the most stress-free win, but you're playing a tough team. They were hot, won eight in a row or something like that, and we just did enough to put out the fire."
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