Beltran goes deep again as Yanks down Angels
NEW YORK -- Carlos Beltran hit a two-run home run, Michael Pineda pitched a season-high seven innings, and the New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Beltran homered for the second night in a row, and Starlin Castro also went deep for the Yankees, who have 22 homers in their past 11 home games.
Austin Romine and Alex Rodriguez added RBI singles, and Rob Refsnyder contributed a sacrifice fly as New York beat the Angels for the seventh consecutive time at home.
Pineda (3-6) took a shutout into the fifth inning. He wound up allowing three runs and four hits while finishing seven innings for the first time since July 4 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The right-hander lowered his ERA to 6.14 by striking out four, issuing two walks and throwing 61 of 91 pitches for strikes. Several of his deliveries hit 95 mph or higher.
Dellin Betances struck out two in a perfect eighth. Andrew Miller pitched the ninth and notched his seventh save.
Gregorio Petit had an RBI single and Kole Calhoun hit a two-run home run for the Angels, who have dropped 13 of their last 16 visits to Yankee Stadium.
David Huff (0-1) made his debut for Los Angeles and was tagged for five runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.
The Yankees quickly struck for three runs in the first off Huff. Beltran made it 2-0 when he hammered a 0-1 changeup into the left seats. After Beltran's 15th home run, New York took a three-run lead when Romine singled to left field.
The lead grew to 4-0 in the second on Refsnyder's sacrifice fly, which occurred after Angels first baseman Albert Pujols was charged with an error for dropping Huff's throw on Brett Gardner's sacrifice bunt.
New York increased its lead to 5-0 when Castro hit a 3-1 pitch off the right field foul pole with one out in the third.
The Angels scored three times in the fifth. Petit singled up the middle the middle and two batters later, Calhoun's sixth home run of the season just cleared the right field wall.
New York's final run came on a two-out single by Rodriguez in the seventh off Cam Bedrosian.
NOTES: RHP Tim Lincecum allowed four runs (two earned) in five innings during his second rehab start for Triple-A Salt Lake on Tuesday. Lincecum will make another start with Salt Lake before joining the Angels. ... Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira said if he had surgery on the torn cartilage in his right knee it would have ended his season because the procedure requires a recovery of 4-to-6 months. ... The teams made a combined seven transactions prior to the game. New York purchased the contract of RHP Anthony Swarzak from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, optioned RHP Luis Cessa to Triple-A and designated LHP Tyler Olson for assignment. The Angels placed RHP Joe Smith (hamstring) on the 15-day disabled list, purchased the contract of LHP David Huff from Triple-A Salt Lake, recalled RHP Mike Morin from Salt Lake and designated RHP Javy Guerra for assignment.