Angels’ 5-0 Lead Vanishes in Hurry

NEW YORK —  Angel Manager John McNamara might have to miss today’s game against the New York Yankees, but he assured reporters it has nothing to do with Tuesday night’s 17-6 thrashing at the hands of the Yankees.

“If you don’t see me [today] it’s not because I jumped out of a hotel window,” McNamara said after the Angels blew an early lead for the second consecutive night. “It’s because I have to see a doctor.”

McNamara’s right foot, ankle and calf, injured during a treadmill test in late July, have swollen up again, and simply getting to the dugout is as painful as watching the Angels, who crumbled like month-old bread after building a 5-0 first-inning lead before 20,795 in Yankee Stadium.

A 4-0 first-inning lead against the Boston Red Sox evaporated into a 10-9 loss Monday night, and after the Angels knocked out Yankee starter David Weathers with a five-run first Tuesday night, the Yankees stormed back for 17 unanswered runs, scoring in every inning from the third through seventh.

“It makes you very, very tired watching this stuff,” McNamara said, “and when you’re hurt it makes you even more miserable.”

The Angels got two-run singles by Garret Anderson and Jorge Fabregas and an RBI double by Rex Hudler in the first inning, but then they rolled over, as Yankee reliever Brian Boehringer, booed by Yankee fans when he entered in the first, threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

Angel starter Dennis Springer retired the first six batters, but Paul O’Neill homered in the third, and the Yankees scored six unearned runs in the fourth, thanks to Gold Glove first baseman J.T. Snow’s fielding error.

Cecil Fielder blooped a single to right and Tino Martinez walked to open the inning, but Snow whiffed on Bernie Williams’ potential double-play grounder, which rolled under Snow’s glove, allowing Fielder to score.

O’Neill hit into a double play, scoring Martinez, but successive hits by Mariano Duncan (single), Jim Leyritz (two-run homer), Derek Jeter (single), Wade Boggs (single) and Darryl Strawberry (single) gave New York the lead, and Martinez capped the uprising with a bases-loaded walk off reliever Kyle Abbott.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Snow said of the error, his eighth of the season. “I saw the replay and the ball stayed down the whole way. I’ve got to make that play. It’s a play I’ve made a million times. We should have been out of the inning. That was a turning point.”

The Yankees never looked back, tacking on a run in the fifth, four in the sixth and five in the seventh against Abbott, who has done little to distinguish himself since joining the team Thursday, and Jason Grimsley, whose dreadful performances have become harder to stomach than the Macarena.

“The name of the game is, has been, and always will be pitching,” McNamara said. “If you don’t get it, you won’t compete.”

Springer, the knuckleballer who had won his last two starts, was charged with only one earned run, but he was hit hard, giving up seven hits in 3 2/3 innings. Abbott gave up seven runs on six hits and five walks in 2 2/3 innings, and Grimsley gave up three runs on three hits in 1 2/3 innings.

“They hit the ball very hard,” McNamara said, “and not one of their home runs was a cheapie.”

The first six batters in the Yankee order combined for only seven hits, but the bottom three--O’Neill, Duncan/Pat Kelly and Leyritz--combined to go 9 for 13 with 10 RBIs and eight runs. Duncan had a two-run homer to center in the sixth.

“It was sort of a helpless feeling out there,” Springer said. “It was like, ‘What do you throw? Where do you throw it?’ They were hitting everything. I didn’t trick them enough.”

Today, Angel rookie Jason Dickson will make his first major league start against the Yankees, who have 27 runs and 32 hits in their last two games, victories over the Seattle Mariners and Angels.

“I hope Dickson didn’t see that,” General Manager Bill Bavasi said outside the Angel clubhouse after the game. “It might scare him to death.”