DEFENSE FALLS APART AT END ANGELS ALLOW TWO RUNS IN 12TH INNING IN LOSS NEW YORK 7, ANGELS 5.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - A close play at first base gave the Angels a loss on Sunday. A big mental mistake only made it worse.

A 90-foot squibber was the difference in the Yankees' 12-inning, 7-5 victory before a sellout crowd of 43,455 at Edison Field.

With the score tied at 5 in the top of the 12th inning, Alfonso Soriano came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs and hit one off the end of the bat against Angels reliever Scot Shields. The ball bounced slowly toward second baseman Adam Kennedy, who fielded the ball on the run, and with his glove shoveled it to first baseman Scott Spiezio.

First-base umpire John Hirschbeck, however, ruled Soriano safe and Rondell White scored to give the Yankees a lead. When Spiezio fell to the ground in disbelief, Jorge Posada, who was on second base to begin the play, broke for the plate.

Shields screamed at Spiezio to throw home, but when Spiezio didn't respond, Shields took the ball out of Spiezio's glove and threw home too late to get Posada.

``I thought I screamed pretty loud,'' Shields said. ``I think he might have been screaming louder.''

Though the extra run ultimately didn't matter, Spiezio said it never should have happened.

``I lost track of the situation,'' he said. ``I was looking at (Hirschbeck) and hoping so hard for him to call the guy out. When he said safe, it was like I got shot.''

The Angels and Yankees split their four-game series, and with Sunday's loss the Angels missed a chance to gain ground on the American West-leading Mariners, who lost Sunday. Anaheim remains three games out. The Angels are tied with Boston in the wild-card race after the Red Sox's win over Texas.

Shields took the blame for putting the Angels in that situation to begin with. The Angels bullpen had thrown 6 2/3 scoreless innings entering the 12th inning when Shields couldn't throw strikes.

With one out, he walked White and Posada but then got a big out when he struck out Derek Jeter. Up next was Enrique Wilson, with a .215 average. With MVP-candidate Soriano on deck, Shields wanted to throw strikes. But he couldn't.

``I thought that was a pretty good sequence of pitches, I found my release point,'' Shields said of facing Jeter. ``Somehow, I lost it again.''

His pitch to Soriano - low and away - was a good one. But Soriano hit it in the right place.

``It was perfect placement with that ball,'' Spiezio said. ``If he hits it harder, he's out. If he hits it softer, he's out. Closer to me or closer to the pitcher, he's out. And it was the wrong guy hitting, because he has incredible speed.''

The Angels had their chances before the 12th inning, putting a runner in scoring position with less than two outs in both the ninth and 10th innings. In the ninth, the Angels had runners on first and second with one out when manager Mike Scioscia sent up Garret Anderson to pinch hit. Anderson was not in the starting lineup for the first time this season because of a cramp in his right hamstring.

But Anderson struck out on three pitches. After Troy Glaus walked to load the bases, Alex Ochoa, in his second game as an Angel, hit into an inning-ending force play.

In the 10th, Kennedy singled and was sacrificed to second but was left stranded. Mike Stanton (5-1), the fourth of five Yankees relievers, pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings to get the win.

Both teams began the game as though scoring runs would not be a problem, as Angels starter Ramon Ortiz and Yankees starter David Wells struggled. The game was tied 5-5 after two innings.

``It was like a heavyweight fight there for a while,'' Angels right fielder Tim Salmon said, ``with both teams going toe to toe.''

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Jason Giambi's RBI double, but the Angels scored three in the bottom of the inning on Troy Glaus' three-run homer.

The Yankees came back with four runs in the top of the second inning to go up 5-3 getting a little help from the Angels' defense. Glaus' error on White's ground ball helped the Yankees get rolling, as two of the runs in the inning were unearned.

The Angels came back in the bottom of the second with two runs to tie the game at 5, one coming home on Salmon's sacrifice fly and the other on a two-out single by Shawn Wooten. The Angels might have had more, but White made a spectacular catch going toward the left-field corner on a liner by Glaus, ending the inning.

Ortiz and Wells were finished early. Wells left after two innings, having allowed five runs and six hits. Ortiz stuck around a little longer, going 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) and nine hits.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

The Angels' Troy Glaus slaps hands with third-base coach Ron Roenicke after his three-run homer on Sunday.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press