Angels-Yankees tied 2-2 after 9

NEW YORK (AP) — The Yankees and Angels escaped late-inning jams, and New York and Los Angeles were tied at 2 after nine innings Saturday on another bitterly raw night in the AL championship series.

Coming off a 4-1 victory in Friday night’s opener, the Yankees were trying to take a two-game lead as the best-of-seven series heads to the warmth of Southern California.

Robinson Cano’s RBI triple in the second and Derek Jeter’s solo homer in the third had given New York a 2-0 lead.

But Erick Aybar singled in a run in the fifth off a suddenly shaky A.J. Burnett, who sent home another run with his second wild pitch of the inning.

Burnett, following up on CC Sabathia’s eight innings of four-hit ball, started 13 of his first 15 batters with strikes and allowed one hit through four innings, but started 10 of his last 12 with balls. He gave up three hits in 6 1/3 innings, walked two and hit two batters.

Angels starter Joe Saunders, who hadn’t pitched since Oct. 4, gave up six hits in seven innings, struck out five and walked one.

Los Angeles loaded the bases in the seventh after Cano misplayed a grounder to second for an error, but Joba Chamberlain struck out Vladimir Guerrero to end the threat. After Jeter botched what should have been an inning-ending, double-play grounder in the eighth, Phil Hughes struck out Gary Matthews Jr. and Mariano Rivera came on and retired Aybar on a slow roller.

Hideki Matsui singled for the Yankees off Kevin Jepsen in the ninth and Brett Gardner’s hit-and-run single sent pinch-runner Freddy Guzman to third.

After Gardner advanced on defensive indifference, Cano hit a nubber in front of the plate was thrown out at first by catcher Jeff Mathis.

Saunders retired his first five batters before walking Nick Swisher on five pitches. Cano then reached out for an 0-2 pitch and drove it to right-center to score Swisher.

Jeter, 7 for 15 against Saunders coming in, hit an opposite-field homer a few rows into the right-field seats with one out in the third.

With 19 postseason homers, Jeter moved past former Yankees Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson into sole possession of third place, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez (29) and former Yankees teammate Bernie Williams (22).

The Angels tied it in the fifth, with the top of the inning taking 23 minutes as Burnett threw 33 pitches.