NEW YORK — Cameron Maybin and the Los Angeles Angels turned a little mayhem into a lot of runs.
Albert Pujols lined a go-ahead single that drove in Maybin during a messy, four-run rally in the seventh inning and the Angels overcame Aaron Judge‘s major league-leading 25th homer to beat the New York Yankees 10-5 on Thursday night.
The Angels took advantage of three errors and two wild pitches — including a heater by Dellin Betances that sailed to the backstop — during a late surge. Los Angeles sent the AL East leaders to their eighth loss in nine games.
"Love creating chaos," the speedy Maybin said. "Making those guys frantic."
Maybin led off the game with a home run against Luis Severino (5-3). But with the Angels trailing 5-4, it was Maybin’s potential double-play grounder that skipped past second baseman Starlin Castro for an error and set up the comeback.
Maybin then stole his AL-high 22nd base, prompting a wild throw on the play. In the eighth, he drew a pickoff throw at first that bounced away, letting another run score.
Behind 5-1 early, the Angels kept swinging. Maybin wound up scoring three times, and has safely reached in a career-high 26 straight games.
"You get knocked down," Maybin said, "but we don’t get knocked out."
Yankees manager Joe Girardi saw a lot that needed fixing.
"I believe we’re much better than what we’ve been playing, but right now we’re going through a hard time like a lot of teams do. I mean, there’s some things we have to get ironed out, there’s no doubt about that," he said.
Yusmeiro Petit (2-0) tossed two perfect innings in relief of starter Jesse Chavez, who laboured through 93 pitches in just four innings. Petit and three other relievers retired 14 straight batters until Chris Carter singled with two outs in the ninth.
Judge launched a three-run shot into the netting that protects Monument Park in straightaway centre field in the second. The drive drew chants of "MVP! MVP!" for the rookie slugger, and extended his streak of safely reaching base to a career-best 24 games.
Cliff Pennington had three hits for the Angels. He singled and scored on Pujols’ single in the third, singled off Severino to begin the seventh-inning rally and doubled to open a two-run eighth.
Kole Calhoun’s sacrifice fly off Chasen Shreve made it 5-all in the seventh. Maybin stole second, continued to third on catcher Gary Sanchez’s throwing error and scored on Pujols’ single off Betances for a 6-5 lead.
Betances compounded the problems with an especially wild pitch — it caromed so hard and far off the screen, Sanchez almost threw out a runner at third.
"Right when I was about to throw the pitch I realized this could be bad, because Gary looked like he was waiting curveball and I was throwing fastball. So I tried to do my best to not kill him there," Betances said.
Andrelton Simmons added a two-run double that made it 8-5. Betances had gone 22 straight appearances without permitting an earned run.
Yankees reliever Domingo German threw a wild pitch in the eighth and also bounced a pickoff toss to first that allowed a run to score.
Los Angeles took two of three from the Yankees for the second time in 11 days. At 4-2, the Angels posted their first season series win over New York since 2008.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Angels: RHP Huston Street was activated from the disabled list. He’d been out since spring training because of a strained back muscle. … OF Mike Trout (thumb) will begin hitting off a tee this weekend. … RHP Matt Shoemaker (forearm) is going back to the West Coast for further evaluation.
BYE
Chavez has given up a home run in 13 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors. He already had set the Angels’ team record in that dubious department.
JUDGE’S FAN CLUB
Angels bench coach Dino Ebel introduced himself to Judge during batting practice, and had a request. "My boys are 8 and 9, and they’re in awe of him. They said it would be awesome if I could get a picture with him," Ebel said." The new star obliged, further impressing the longtime major and minor league coach. "He’s amazing to watch," he said. "I’d heard he was a really good person, too."
UP NEXT
Angels: RHP Alex Meyer (3-3, 3.52 ERA) starts at Fenway Park on Friday night vs. Rick Porcello (3-9, 5.05) and the Red Sox. Meyer has a 1.19 ERA in four starts since coming off the DL.
Yankees: RHP Masahiro Tanaka (5-7, 5.63) opposes Texas RHP Yu Darvish (6-5, 3.35) for the first time in the majors. Tanaka said he recalled their last matchup, won by Darvish six years ago in Japan’s top league. "I think it’s something hopefully that Japanese baseball fans are looking forward to," Tanaka said through a translator.
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