CC Sabathia, Yankees lead Angels after 3 innings in cold opener to AL championship series

Sabathia, Yankees lead Angels in cold ALCS opener

NEW YORK — CC Sabathia pitched four-hit ball, Hideki Matsui drove in two runs and the New York Yankees took a 4-1 lead over the Los Angeles Angels after six blustery innings Friday night in a raw opener to the AL championship series.

Normally sound on fundamentals, the Angels were freezing up at chilly Yankee Stadium. They made three costly errors and let Matsui’s popup drop for an RBI single.

Playing in biting, wintry weather more suited to Big Ten football, New York scored twice in the first inning against John Lackey with the help of two fielding mistakes by his defense.

Derek Jeter singled and scored on Alex Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly, a ball that whipped around in the wind before Torii Hunter tracked it down in medium center field.

Matsui followed with a two-out popup that fell untouched between shortstop Erick Aybar and third baseman Chone Figgins at the edge of the outfield grass. Both players backed off, thinking the other had it lined up.

Aybar was wearing a hood under his baseball cap that covered his ears, perhaps making it harder to hear Figgins. However, it didn’t appear either player called for the ball. When it fell, Lackey dropped into a crouch and screamed in frustration.

The miscue allowed Johnny Damon to score from second, and Matsui was credited with an RBI single. Damon had reached second on a broken-bat single and throwing error by left fielder Juan Rivera.

Matsui added an RBI double in the fifth. Rodriguez tried to score from first on the play, running through a stop sign from third base coach Rob Thomson, but was thrown out on the relay as catcher Jeff Mathis withstood an awkward collision at the plate.

It didn’t appear Mathis ever applied a tag, and Rodriguez reached back to slap home plate after barreling over the catcher. Still, there was no argument with umpire Tim McClelland’s call.

The following inning, though, the Angels vigorously disputed a call.

Sabathia threw wide to first after fielding Hunter’s bunt, but umpire Laz Diaz ruled Mark Teixeira still had his toe on the bag when he caught the ball. Teixeira’s foot definitely slipped off the base after his long stretch, but TV replays appeared to show his foot was still barely touching the bag at the instant he made the grab.

In the sixth, Lackey issued a two-out walk to Melky Cabrera, who advanced to second on the pitcher’s errant pickoff attempt. Jeter followed with an RBI single and went to second on an error by Hunter, who has won eight straight Gold Gloves.

Playing their first ALCS game since an unprecedented collapse against Boston five years ago, the Yankees were trying to take another step toward their 27th World Series title and first since 2000.

First, they’ll have to get past the Angels, who have given New York trouble for years. They eliminated the Yankees in first-round playoff series in 2002 and 2005. At 73-63, the Angels are the only AL club with a winning regular-season record against the Yankees since 1996.

Pregame introductions were scrapped because of the cold. The gametime temperature was 45 degrees, with a 17 mph wind blowing in from the Northeast. There was a light drizzle just before the first pitch, but it tapered off as play began.

Second baseman Robinson Cano wore a ski cap under his Yankees hat. Teixeira, Damon and Nick Swisher donned special caps with Elmer Fudd-like ear flaps. Players kept blowing on their bare hands and putting them in back pockets as they did trunk twists and bounced in place, trying to stay warm and loose.

At third base, Rodriguez was in short sleeves. So was Lackey.

Hardy fans filled the bleachers, but there were empty premium seats scattered throughout the lower level. Attendance was 49,688.

Pitching in long sleeves, Sabathia allowed only Kendry Morales’ run-scoring single with two outs in the fourth. It scored Vladimir Guerrero, who doubled to deep left-center with one out.

Sabathia struck out five, including ex-Yankee Bobby Abreu twice. The big lefty didn’t go to a three-ball count until facing Abreu to start the sixth.

Lackey gave up consecutive two-out singles to Teixeira and Rodriguez in the third, putting runners at the corners. Matsui grounded out to end the inning.

The right-hander struck out Jeter with two on to end the fourth.

Lackey threw 114 pitches and was lifted after 5 2-3 innings. He allowed four runs — two earned — and nine hits.

The Yankees were coming off a three-game sweep of Minnesota in the division series that included a huge performance by Rodriguez and a win by Sabathia in the opener.

The Angels swept Boston, a longtime October nemesis, in the first round. Lackey pitched 7 1-3 scoreless innings in Game 1 for his first postseason win since Game 7 of the 2002 World Series against San Francisco, when he was a rookie.