Sabathia sharp before ejection; Yankees sweep Angels, 6-2

NEW YORK (AP) -- CC Sabathia pitched six sharp innings before being ejected for arguing balls and strikes, Brett Gardner hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer Sunday and the New York Yankees won their season-high sixth straight game, 6-2 over the Los Angeles Angels.

Jose Pirela hit his first big league homer and Chris Young also connected off C.J. Wilson (3-5) for New York, which came back to win after building big leads in the first two games of the series. The Yankees swept the Angels, losers of five in a row, in a series of at least three games for the first time since 2003.

Sabathia (3-7) gave up back-to-back homers to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the first inning but then breezed through a struggling Angles lineup the rest of the way, notching his 2,500th career strikeout in the fifth.

Pujols' homer was his 535th, breaking a tie with Jimmie Foxx for 17th place on the career list.

After getting Kole Calhoun to end the sixth with a double-play grounder, Sabathia indicated his displeasure with the strike zone as he walked off the field, pointing to the ground and shouting at plate umpire Dan Bellino.

Bellino tossed the big lefty as he crossed the first base line, and manager Joe Girardi jumped the dugout railing and raced toward home plate. He was quickly ejected, too. Sabathia, meanwhile, changed his path and hustled toward home. He was physically restrained by a teammate as he yelled at Bellino.

It was the second consecutive solid start for Sabathia in a trying season. He followed up a two-run, three-hit outing in Seattle by giving up five hits and two runs with a walk and seven strikeouts.

On regular rest, Sabathia was pitching in place of Michael Pineda, who had his turn skipped as the Yankees manage the innings workload for the injury-prone righty.

Wilson worked neatly into the fifth, allowing only Didi Gregorius' RBI grounder. But Young led off the inning with his first homer since May 2 before John Ryan Murphy and Gregorius singled. Gardner then lined a shot to the short right-field porch for a 5-2 lead.

Pirela homered off Wilson to start the seventh. Wilson gave up seven hits and six runs in seven innings.

The Angels ran themselves out of a run in the third. Erick Aybar, jogging home on David Freese's fly to the corner in right, failed to cross the plate before Trout was nabbed at second for a double play on a strong throw by Carlos Beltran.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Angels: With a day off Monday, manager Mike Scioscia said he didn't see the need to get reliever Joe Smith or closer Huston Street into a game just for work even after not pitching for four days. "They've pitched a lot. I don't see that four or five days off is necessarily a bad thing, if it comes to that," Scioscia said.

Yankees: CF Jacoby Ellsbury (knee sprain) is making progress but there is no date yet for him to take batting practice. ... Girardi said he would talk after the game with general manager Brian Cashman about the return of infielder Brendan Ryan. He has been out since the start of the season with a calf strain.

UP NEXT

Angles: RHP Matt Shoemaker (3-4) starts at Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The Angels took two of three from the Rays last week in Anaheim, California.

Yankees: Masahiro Tanaka (3-1) makes his second start Tuesday since a DL stint when New York opens a two-game set against Washington. The Japanese right-hander struck out a season-high nine in a win over Seattle his last time out.

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