With the Yankees behind 7-5 entering the ninth inning Joe Torre still went to Mo to keep the Angels at bay since the heart of the order was due up.
Rivera responded with a 1-2-3 inning by striking out Darin Erstad and Vladimir Guerrero and getting Garret Anderson to ground to first to end the inning.
The Yankee bullpen spoiled a fine outing by new Yankee Shawn Chacon. He went six innings and only allowed one unearned run. Felix Rodriguez started by walking the first batter, then newly acquired Alan Embree got to 0-2 on Adam Kennedy before he looped a single to left. Chone Figgins then bunted toward third and Embree fielded the ball but threw it wild to first allowing a run to score. Torre responded with Flash Gordon who gave up a long single to Orlando Cabrera off the right field wall giving the Angels the lead at 4-3. Gordon allowed another run to score on an infield grounder to second from Guerrero to make the score 5-3. Gordon then went from bad to worse by giving up a two run homer to former Yankee Juan Rivera extending the Angels lead to 7-3.
The Yankees came back in the eighth with a two run homer from Jason Giambi. The Angels then brought in Francisco Rodriguez who got out of the eighth without further damage. The ninth was different, he surrendered four walks, a wild pitch and a game winning two run double to Matsui making the final 8-7 in favor of the Yankees. It was the first time in six save opportunities against the Yankees in 2005 that K-Rod was unsuccessful.
Rivera has now lowered his season ERA to 0.81.
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