Napoli Defeats Yankees on Fly

Oh, how they would have loved this game in New York. And how they loved it in Anaheim.

They would have loved this one at Yankee Stadium because they love to boo Alex Rodriguez. And they loved it at Angel Stadium because the Angels won, in dramatic fashion, against the hated Yankees.

Rookie Mike Napoli drove in the winning run with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, scoring pinch-runner Reggie Willits on a sacrifice fly that lifted the Angels to a 6-5 victory on Friday.

“It was a good feeling,” Napoli said. “It’s one of the brighter moments in my big league career so far.”

As for Rodriguez and the Yankees fans, well, most valuable player last year, yeah, but what have you done for them lately?

Rodriguez faced John Lackey four times. Lackey struck him out every time. And Rodriguez got to hear boos in California too, from a vocal contingent of Yankee fans among a sellout crowd announced at 44,253, a record for a regular-season game at Angel Stadium.

They stayed, and they stood, to cheer Napoli, at a time the cheers meant so much to him. Napoli leads AL rookies in home runs, but he is hitting .120 since the All-Star break, .108 in August.

“I needed it,” he said. “I needed it bad.”

Said Angels Manager Mike Scioscia: “In that situation, against a pitcher he’s never faced, who has a power arm, that’s a huge at-bat. Hopefully, that will give him some confidence.”

He had plenty of confidence in his eye, if not so much in his swing. Octavio Dotel, the sixth New York pitcher, got ahead of Napoli, one ball and two strikes. Napoli fouled off two pitches, then took ball three on a pitch so close to the strike zone that he said the call “could have gone either way.”

On the eighth pitch, the sacrifice fly, and then the mob of teammates that surrounded him. The Angels had lost a day to the Oakland Athletics, but not a game. The Angels remained 5 1/2 games back, with 33 to play.

The Yankees played the percentages to start the ninth inning, summoning Mike Myers to pitch to Garret Anderson. Myers, whose specialty is retiring left-handed hitters, had gotten Anderson 17 times in 19 at-bats.

But Anderson doubled, the Yankees replaced Myers with Dotel, and the Angels replaced Anderson with Willits.

Juan Rivera singled Willits to third, the Yankees walked Howie Kendrick intentionally to load the bases, and Adam Kennedy popped up. Then Napoli won the game.

“This game was huge for us,” he said. “Oakland won again. We have to keep it close.”

The Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero, who preceded Rodriguez as the American League MVP, did make contact. He got a big hit too, a two-run double that gave him 100 runs batted in for the eighth time in his nine-year career, with the exception a year interrupted by injury.

Lackey, the league’s pitcher of the month in July, remained winless in August. He departed after six innings, with the score tied, 4-4.

The Yankees took a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh, on a two-out wild pitch by Scot Shields. The Angels tied it in the bottom of the inning, on a sacrifice fly by Orlando Cabrera.

Closer Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth for the victory, with help. Napoli threw out a runner trying to steal, and center fielder Chone Figgins robbed Melky Cabrera of an extra-base hit.