Bombers Bash Halos: Blomberg’s Grand (kosher)-Salami does in Percival

9/1 - 9/3
Edison Field - Anaheim, CA
GAME 1 - Yankees 5, Angels 3
Steve Kline (3-0, 2.36) went the distance for the Bombers and scatted a whopping 12 hits, but only gave up 3 runs (2 earned) en-route to this complete game victory over the Halos.  Scott Schoeneweis (1-2, 2.52) continues to be the Halos best hurler, but for some uncanny reason he can not get any real run support.  Schoeneweis gave his team the "quality start" they much needed, but still the Angels just can't supply runs.  Much of Anaheim’s starting lineup is hitting under .250 + their power outage has hit epic proportions.  Thurman Munson had a huge day for the Yanks, going 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and a homer and boosting his season average to .327.  Horace Clarke was 3 for 4 with an RBI for the winners.

GAME 2 - Yankees 8, Angels 4
Angels manager Douglas Zaner went to his "pen" early and often thanks to starter Kent Bottenfield lasting only 2 innings.  Kent Mercker kept his team in the game with close to 5 innings of scoreless ball.  On the other side of the coin the Yanks went to veteran ace Mel Stottlemyre (4-1, 1.81), who gave up only 2 earned runs in a complete game effort.  With the score knotted at 2 the Bombers unleashed for 6 huge runs in the top of the 9th off of Hasegawa and Troy Percival.  Munson, who had a well deserved day off, pinch hit for Jake Gibbs and singled.  Gene "Stick" Michael bunted Munson over to second and Roy White was given an intentional  pass to setup the DP possibility. The next 3 batters worked out walks to give the Yanks a 2 run lead without hitting the ball out of the infield.  Up stepped "the Boomer", Ron Blomberg and in the worlds of Michael Kay, "See ya".  Boomer crushed a 2-1 pitch for his second homer of the season and first grand (kosher)-salami.  Stotts had enough cushion to work with and the Yanks weren't even phased when the Angels scored two window dressing runs in the home half of the inning.

Yankee Stadium - Bronx, NY
GAME 3 - Angels 8, Yankees 1
A sellout crowd came to the big ballpark up in the Bronx to see the Yanks put the finishing touches on a series sweep.  What they wound up seeing was the moribund Angel offense come alive and punish Yankee starter Fritz Peterson (2-2, 2.79) to the tune of 7 runs in 8 innings of work.  Anaheim put a nice crooked number on the scoreboard in the 1st (4 runs) and never looked back.  Curiously they did it without the longball as Daren Erstad hit the only homer of the game.  Adam Kennedy went 4 for 4, but the real story was the stellar pitching of Ramon Ortiz, who went 7 2/3 innings and gave up only 1 run.  If Anaheim can get this type of performance or something close to it they can really start to get back in this pennant race.