NEW YORK (AP) ― Derek Lowe was being given a tour of the Yankees’ facilities and changing at a locker without a nameplate Monday afternoon. David Phelps had little more than a day to prepare for a spot start in place of ace CC Sabathia.
No matter. The unlikely duo combined to shut down the potent Texas Rangers.
Phelps pitched a career-high five innings and picked off two runners, and Lowe completed New York’s 8-2 victory on Monday night with four shutout innings in his Yankees debut.
“To have those two guys step up to do what they did today, to give those guys like D-Rob (David Robertson) and (Rafael) Soriano a full day off and not have to warm up and anything that’s big,” said Nick Swisher, who hit a grand slam off Ryan Dempster and drove in five runs.
In the opener of a four-game series between the teams with the AL’s best records, the Yankees powered their way to a sixth straight victory over Texas in the Bronx.
Swisher’s second slam this season was his 200th career homer. Eric Chavez also homered off Dempster (1-1), the Rangers’ recent acquisition. Ichiro Suzuki tripled and Derek Jeter followed with a long RBI double in the seventh to end Dempster’s third start for Texas.
Dempster matched a season high by allowing eight runs. The other time he allowed eight was in his first start for Texas on Aug. 2. In three starts since coming from the Chicago Cubs in a trade-deadline deal, Dempster has allowed 19 runs ― 16 earned ― in 17 1/3 innings.
“Too much is made of that,” Dempster said of switching leagues. “I know how to make pitches. When you’re facing lineups and you don’t get that break at the bottom of the lineup where you have the pitcher hitting, and you always have a hitter, every pitch is really, really valuable and it just comes down to executing one pitch at a time. Simple plan. Nothing more and nothing less than that. And tonight, I paid for my mistakes.”
Swisher added an RBI single in the seventh as New York won for the fifth time in six games.
Cleveland 6, LA Angels 2
ANAHEIM, California (AP) ― Justin Masterson pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning and the Cleveland Indians bounced back from their most lopsided loss of the season to beat the sputtering Los Angeles Angels 6-2 Monday night in the opener of a 10-game road trip.
Brent Lillibridge homered off All-Star lefty C.J. Wilson (9-9), who dropped his fifth straight decision.
Albert Pujols hit his 25th homer for Los Angeles.
Masterson (9-10) scattered six hits, struck out four and walked three over six-plus innings. The right-hander is 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in seven career starts against the Angels, the lowest mark of any pitcher with at least five starts against them.
Joe Smith relieved Masterson after Mark Trumbo led off the seventh with an infield hit and Alberto Callaspo singled. The sidearming righty retired Howie Kendrick on a fly ball, struck out Erick Aybar and slipped a called third strike past Chris Iannetta with two runners in scoring position.
Vinnie Pestano, who was born in nearby Huntington Beach, attended Anaheim’s Canyon High School and played his college ball at Cal State Fullerton, gave up a majestic two-run homer by Pujols into the left-field bullpen with one out in the Angels’ eighth after a leadoff walk to Mike Trout.
Pujols’ drive snapped the right-hander’s scoreless streak at 21 1/3 innings, the longest by an Indians reliever since Paul Assenmacher’s run of 23 1/3 innings in 1997.
