Dan Giese's Strong Outing Ruined as Yankees' 'Pen Implodes

The New York Yankees lost a gut-wrenching game on Saturday afternoon, losing 11-4 to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Dan Giese started for the Yankees, and pitched a solid game. Giese went six innings, gave up one run on three hits, walked one, and struck out five.

John Lackey went for the Angels. He lasted seven innings, gave up three runs on nine hits, walked one, and struck out five.

Believe it or not, this game was a good old fashioned pitcher's duel up until the top of the sixth inning. In the top half of the frame, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi hit back-to-back solo home runs for the Yankees, giving the Bronx Bombers a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Angels answered back with a solo homer from Mark Teixeira, his 22nd long ball of the campaign.

The Yankees added one in the top of the seventh when Johnny Damon singled to score Ivan Rodriguez.

The Yankees led 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh. Cue the implosion. Jose Veras came on in relief, and gave up two solo homers to Garret Anderson and Mike Napoli to spoil Giese's strong showing and tie the game at three.

Things got worse for the New York bullpen in the bottom of the eighth when the Angels crossed the plate eight times.

Edwar Ramirez came in to try to keep the game tied, but to no avail. Vladimir Guerrero crushed a solo home run to give the Angels a 4-3 lead. Soon after, Anderson singled to score Torii Hunter, and Juan Rivera doubled to score Anderson and Hunter.

The Angels also saw run production out of Chone Figgins and Maicer Izturis in the inning, and were helped out with a wild pitch from David Robertson, making the score 11-3 after eight innings of play.

The Yankees scored one more run in the top half of the ninth inning, getting a sacrifice fly and RBI from Derek Jeter, but the hill was too high to climb as the Angels won the game.

Scot Shields of the Angels picked up the win, and moves ahead to 5-3.

Ramirez takes the loss and falls to 3-1, and Veras recorded only his second blown save this year.

There might be some second guessing to Yankee manager Joe Girardi's decision to pull Giese from the game. He was pitching effectively, only tossed 83 pitches at the end of six innings, and probably could have gone one more inning if needed.

The Yankees will look to put this loss behind them and salvage the final game of the series tomorrow afternoon at 3:35 ET.

The Yankees will give the ball to Andy Pettitte (12-9, 4.34 ERA). He will be opposed by current 14-game winner Joe Saunders (14-5, 3.03 ERA) in a battle of lefty pitchers.