ANGELS NEW YORK TOUGH ANAHEIM BEATS YANKEES FOR 3RD TIME IN ROW IN BRONX ANGELS 5, NEW YORK 3.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

NEW YORK - For most teams, a trip to Yankee Stadium is the baseball equivalent of a trip to the dentist. For the Angels, it's more like an extra hour of recess.

``Myself, I enjoy playing here,'' Garret Anderson said Wednesday night after his three hits and two stolen bases helped the Angels beat the New York Yankees 5-3.

``It's not so much an intimidating place to play as it is a fun place to play,'' the Kennedy High of Granada Hills product said.

Especially when you beat two starting pitchers with a combined record of 12-0, fight back to .500 (19-19) and see several reeling elements of your club come together splendidly. That's what has happened here to the Angels, who put together one of their best efforts of the season in beating previously unbeaten David Wells in front of a Bronx crowd of 33,647.

Counting Game 2 of their American League Division Series last October, the Angels have won three consecutive games here. Wednesday's game had several parallels to that one.

Reliever Francisco Rodriguez was the winning pitcher, this time improving to 3-1.

In the eighth inning, with the Yankees threatening and closer Troy Percival pawing eagerly at the dirt in the bullpen, manager Mike Scioscia went instead to Brendan Donnelly. Again, Donnelly came through, this time striking out Jorge Posada with the tying runs on base.

Percival closed it with a perfect ninth, completing a solid night of pitching that started with Kevin Appier, whose six-inning, no-walk, two-run performance was perhaps the most encouraging sign of the night.

For the first time this season, Angels pitchers have put together three consecutive quality starts. And first baseman Scott Spiezio, one night after breaking an 0-for-25 slide with two home runs, added four more hits in four at-bats, as the Angels got three of their five RBI from the bottom of their lineup.

Throw in another typically sound evening from the bullpen, and the Angels might have played their best game of the season.

That it happened here merely is a coincidence, insisted Scioscia, who said his team typically brings the same level of intensity no matter the venue.

That's true to a degree, Donnelly said.

``It does seem like we're clicking a little bit,'' Donnelly said. ``And it's nice to click here. Hell, it's the Yankees. They're always the team to beat, no matter who won last year. They've got the history. And look at their lineup.''

Appier negotiated that lineup nicely, giving up an RBI single to Bernie Williams in the first and a solo home run to Posada in the fourth but nothing else.

The Angels were similarly shackled against Wells, who came in 5-0 with a 2.89 ERA. Held scoreless for five innings, they scratched out single runs in the fifth and sixth to tie it.

And just like Tuesday night, when they beat Mike Mussina, the AL leader in victories and ERA, the Angels were able to knock out an unbeaten starting pitcher.

Anderson started the eighth with a single, and with Yankees manager Joe Torre limited by a shaky middle relief corps, this was going to be Wells' jam to escape.

Troy Glaus (UCLA) then delivered a go-ahead double to right and Bengie Molina hit an RBI single that finished Wells.

Spiezio's double off Antonio Osuna scored Molina from first and completed the pivotal inning. Hideki Matsui's RBI single off Rodriguez in the bottom half got the Yankees within 5-3 but Donnelly's strikeout of Posada ended the threat.

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Troy Glaus hits an RBI double as the Angels continued their Bronx dominance Wednesday.

Ed Betz/Associated Press