BIZARRE STAY ENDS WITH SOUR DAY AT NEW YORK'S SHEA : N.Y. YANKEES 6, ANGELS 3.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

For the Angels, their three-day stay in New York was a little like ``The Out of Towners.''

``We came in here on an upbeat note and sat around for two days and got flat, there's no question about it,'' Angels manger Terry Collins said after the Angels lost to the New York Yankees 6-3 Wednesday at Shea Stadium.

The Angels routed the Cleveland Indians 12-1 Sunday before coming to New York, but the fall of a 500-pound steel-and-concrete expansion joint Monday at Yankee Stadium postponed the first two games of the three-game series. The finale was shifted cross-town to the NL ballpark.

``We have no control over that; we still have to go out and do what we have to do,'' said Angels starter Ken Hill (2-1), who allowed his first earned runs of the season and gave up 10 hits in four innings.

``I got some balls up. I made some good pitches, too, but they got some good swings,'' said Hill, who allowed five runs.

If the Angels felt a little out of sorts because of the change in venue, it didn't seem to bother Darryl Strawberry. Strawberry had three hits, including a home run.

``There's a lot of memories,'' said Strawberry, the player the Mets built their team around in the late 1980s. ``That's something you can't take away.''

The first-ever AL-NL doubleheader was created when Yankee Stadium was declared unsafe - just five days before its 75th anniversary. The Yankees used Shea Stadium in 1974 and '75 when their own ballpark was remodeled. The Mets played a regularly scheduled game against the Chicago Cubs later on Wednesday.

Never before had there been AL and NL games on the same day in the same park.

``It was just a unique day,'' said Yankees pitcher David Cone, who played for the Mets from 1987-92.

The crowd of 40,743 - many bought $2 tickets months ago as part of a Yankee Stadium 75th anniversary promotion - even brought Strawberry out for a curtain call.

``You knew he'd be ready to go today,'' said Cone, who on July 18, 1991, allowed Strawberry to homer off the scoreboard in his first game back at Shea after signing with the Dodgers.

As Strawberry circled the bases, the Mets' electronic ``Big Apple,'' used when home players connect, started to rise. But it stopped just as the Mets' logo started to become visible.

``That definitely was a good memory. I've seen that a lot of times,'' said Strawberry, whose 127 homers at Shea are 30 more than any other player.

The Angels never recovered from a 5-0, fourth-inning deficit even though Darin Erstad, Phil Nevin and Gary DiSarcina hit solo homers off David Wells in each of the last three innings.

Over the first six innings, Wells held the Angels to one hit and faced the minimum 18 hitters.

``I put us in the hole early and it's tough to come back, especially with David Wells throwing the way he was,'' Hill said.

At 6:30 in the morning, the Angels' bizarre day began with wakeup calls at their hotel in Manhattan. Then the players had to ride the bus to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to dress in their game uniforms, re-board the bus for the trip to Shea Stadium in Queens. After the game, they returned to Yankee Stadium and showered in the visitors' clubhouse there before getting back on the bus for a ride to the airport and their flight home.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) The Yankees' Mariano Rivera leaves the team's bus at Shea Stadium for a ``road'' game with the Angels.

John Dunn/Associated Press

(2) The Yankees' Derek Jeter avoids Jim Edmonds in play at second base.

Ron Frehm/Associated Press