NEW YORK _ Six days earlier Masahiro Tanaka acknowledged mixed feelings.
Pleased, obviously, at the overall superb play of the Yankees since the end of April, but disappointed in his lack of consistent contribution to it.
"A lot of frustration there, mostly because of how good we're playing but not being able to pitch effectively," Tanaka said last Monday after his fourth straight poor start, that time in Texas when he allowed four runs, three hits and four walks in five innings.
Tanaka snapped the skid Sunday afternoon.
On an unseasonably chilly day featuring gusting winds and little offense, Tanaka pitched six solid innings in a 3-1 victory over the Angels in front of a sellout crowd of 46,109 at the Stadium.
The Yankees (33-16), in taking two of three from the Angels (29-24), climbed within one game of the AL East-leading Red Sox.
Tanaka, who had a 5.91 ERA in those previous four starts into the afternoon, allowed one run, three hits and three walks over six innings. The right-hander, who struck out eight, threw 5 1/3 shutout innings before Andrelton Simmons homered in the sixth to cut the Angels deficit to 3-1.
David Robertson and Dellin Betances pitched scoreless innings in getting the ball to Aroldis Chapman. The closer walked Shoheil Ohtani to start the ninth and the DH went to second with one out on a wild pitch. Chapman struck out Ian Kinsler, put Ohtani on third with a wild pitch, then finished the game by getting Martin Maldonado to ground to short, where Didi Gregorius made a terrific sliding stop and throw, for his 11th save.
Tanaka, in improving to 6-2 with a 4.62 ERA, was particularly tough on the Angels' toughest hitters. Mike Trout, who had five hits, including three doubles and a homer, in Saturday's victory, and Ohtani combined to go 0-for-5 with four strikeouts vs. Tanaka.
The Yankees did all of their scoring in a mess of a third inning against Garrett Richards (4-4), an inning in which they collected just one hit but took advantage of the pitcher completely losing command.
Aaron Judge led off by smoking a single to right-center _ it came off the bat at 119.9 mph, the hardest hit ball this season _ and, after Giancarlo Stanton struck out looking, went to second on a wild pitch with Gary Sanchez at the plate. Sanchez walked and Richards' third wild pitch of the day moved the runners. Gregorius walked on four pitches to load the bases for Aaron Hicks. The centerfielder walked on five pitches, bringing in Judge to make it 1-0 and put an end to Richards' hard-to-watch afternoon (he threw 70 pitches, 36 strikes).
Left-hander Jose Alvarez fell behind Greg Bird 2-and-1 before hitting him with a pitch, forcing in a second run to make it 2-0. Miguel Andujar's ground out to short brought in Gregorius for a 3-0 lead.
Tanaka pitched out of trouble in the fourth. Simmons led off with a single and Ohtani walked. But Tanaka struck out Luis Valbuena swinging at splitter, then got Kinsler to ground into a 1-4-3 double play.
