Yankees Fail to Keep Routine

The Angels don’t do a lot of things well on offense, but they do make contact. No team in the playoffs strikes out as little as the Angels.

That “put the ball in play” philosophy puts pressure on the defense to make the plays. The New York Yankees failed to make three routine plays on Wednesday, contributing mightily to the Angels’ 5-3 victory.

Three unearned runs. Three errors. The Angels couldn’t have tied this series without ‘em.

“It’s costly,” third baseman Alex Rodriguez said. “In the postseason, you can’t make mistakes.”

For all the talk about the Yankees’ postseason experience and $200-million payroll, two of the three errors were committed by rookies who started the season at triple-A Columbus.

“It’s just part of the game,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “Unfortunately, it happened to be part of our game tonight.”

Rodriguez, the highest-paid player in the game, let a ground ball clank off his glove, an error that set the Angels up to score the tying run.

Chien-Ming Wang, the rookie pitcher, threw wide to first base on a routine bunt play, an error that set the Angels up to score the winning runs.

And Robinson Cano, the rookie second baseman, simply dropped a relay throw from shortstop Derek Jeter, a play that did not hurt the Yankees on the scoreboard but did not help his reputation as a careless defender.

He ranked second in the American League in errors by a second baseman, with 17.

“We don’t want to make mistakes. We’re human,” Cano said. “A lot of things happen in the game.

“I don’t think the mistakes were the reason [we lost]. They did the job with men on base.”

Indeed, without two-out hits from Bengie Molina and Orlando Cabrera, the Angels don’t convert the errors into runs. Then again, without the errors, the Angels wouldn’t have had the chance.

“We gave them a couple of extra outs,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said, “and we paid the price for it.”

Funny thing was, Torre paid special attention to defense in making out his lineup. Since Wang relies on a sinker, Torre opted for Tino Martinez at first base ahead of Jason Giambi. The better to field ground balls, you know.

The sinker was working. Wang got 20 outs, 14 on ground balls.

The defense, well, wasn’t working.

In the second inning, Cano nonchalantly dropped a flip from shortstop Derek Jeter. No two-out hit this time, no harm done.

In the sixth, Cabrera poked a lazy hopper toward third base, but the ball squirted from Rodriguez’s glove.

“It was as routine a play as it could get,” Rodriguez said. “Simple play. Just a real bad play.”

Wang got the next two outs, so he should have been out of the inning, but Molina drove home Cabrera to tie the score, 2-2.

In the seventh, after Juan Rivera led off with an infield single, Steve Finley dropped a bunt in front of home plate. But Wang threw wide of first base, Finley was safe on the error, and Cabrera’s two-out single scored two runs and gave the Angels their first lead of the series.