Orange County Register

ANAHEIM

The Angels reached the All-Star break in first place for the third consecutive season and fourth time in the past five. They won the division each of those previous years.

They got there on a high note, completing a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees with a 5-4 victory Sunday afternoon that gave them 20 wins in their final 28 games before the break.

John Lackey outpitched  CC Sabathia in Sunday’s finale — but he had to work his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh. With one run in to make it a 4-2 game at the time, Lackey struck out Mark Teixeira and got Alex Rodriguez to bounce into an inning-ending third-to-first double play.

The bases were loaded again in the eighth when Justin Speier ran into trouble. Darren Oliver came in and got Jorge Posada to hit a sacrifice fly that made it a one-run game. Oliver then got lucky — his follow-through put his glove right in the path of pinch-hitter Nick Swisher’s liner back through the box. The ball stuck in his glove and set up another inning-ending double play.

The Angels’ lone All-Star, Brian Fuentes, closed it out in the ninth.

The Angels have now swept the Yankees in two of their past three series at Angel Stadium and have a 17-5 record at home against them in their past 22 Anaheim meetings.

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