KENNEDY DOESN'T GET LEFT OUT IN WIN ANGELS 3, NEW YORK 2.

Byline: Ben Villa Staff Writer

Throughout his entire Angels career, Adam Kennedy has been lobbying to play against left-handed pitchers and on Saturday night, he might have finally entrenched his name in the lineup fulltime against southpaws.

Kennedy tripled home two runs off Randy Johnson with two outs in the fifth inning and Francisco Rodriguez made history, pitching a tense filled ninth inning to record his 21st consecutive save, a new club record, in a 3-2 win over the New York Yankees in front of 44,044 people at Angels Stadium.

It was the second straight night the Angels have defeated Yankees, who have now lost four in a row and they'll go for the series sweep today at 12:35 p.m. when Bartolo Colon squares off against Mike Mussina.

Ervin Santana started for the Angels and it was his first time facing the Yankees since last October, when he relieved Colon in the second inning and was the winning pitcher in game 5 of the American League Division Series.

In that game, he pitched five and a third innings, allowing three runs and five hits but on Saturday night, he was even better.

The only run he allowed was a first inning home run to Derek Jeter but the Angels immediately got that run back in their half of the first when Vladimir Guerrero singled off Johnson with two outs scoring Orlando Cabrera.

The game would remain deadlocked in a pitchers duel until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Angels touched Johnson for two runs, compliment of Kennedy.

Kennedy was benched on Wednesday against Seattle Mariners and former Angel left-hander Jarrod Washburn but on Saturday, Angels Manger Mike Scioscia left him in the lineup despite the fact that left-handed batters Darin Erstad and Casey Kotchman took the night off.

The move paid off when Rivera led off the inning with a single and Quinlan singled him to second base with two outs. That brought up Kennedy who promptly lined a triple down the right field line scoring both runs.

That proved to be more than enough run for Santana and the Angels bullpen. Santana allowed just two hits in five and a two third innings of work to get the win but he ran into trouble in the sixth inning.

He loaded the bases with two outs after he walked Jason Giambi on a borderline 3-2 pitch that didn't go his way.Left-handed specialist J.C. Romero then relieved him and managed to get Hideki Matsui to break his bat and fly out to shallow center field where Cabrera made a nice running catch to end the inning.

Romero remained in the game and he pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Scott Shields did the same in the eighth but not before Kotchman, who replaced Quinlan in the eighth inning as a defensive replacement, made a great play to prevent a run.

Gary Sheffield doubled with two outs and Alex Rodriguez then hit a ball that appeared destined for right field but Kotchman made a diving stop and flipped to Shields who barely beat Rodriguez to the bag for the final out n the inning.

Francisco Rodriguez then came in to pitch the ninth and after he got Giambi to ground out, he gave up a solo home run to Matsui to cut the Angels lead to 3-2.

Rodriguez then bouced back to strike out Jorge Posada but Robinson Cano followed with a single. Bubba Crosby then ran for Cano and Bernie Williams pinch hit for Kelly Stinnett.

Crosby went to second on a wild pitch but Rodriguez got Williams to hit back to the box and he threw to Kotchman at first for the final out to recordhis third save of the season.

It was Rodriguez's 21st straight save, breaking Troy Percival's old mark of 20.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

The Angels' Adam Kennedy hits a two-run triple off the Yankees' Randy Johnson in the fifth inning.

Francis Specker/Associated Press

Box:

ANGELS vs. N.Y. YANKEES

- Ben Villa