Los Angeles @ New York preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 9, 2011 ) LA Angels 6, NY Yankees 4

THE STORY: How quickly fortunes have changed for the New York Yankees. They were riding high after winning their eighth straight game Friday night to claim first place in the American League East. Fast forward four days and New York had absorbed its third straight defeat and fallen 2½ games behind Boston following a 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday. More alarmingly, stalwart closer Mariano Rivera failed to come through in the last two games, blowing a save against the Red Sox on Sunday night and surrendering the go-ahead, two-run homer in the ninth Tuesday. The Yankees will attempt to halt the three-game skid Wednesday in the second of a three-game series with the visiting Angels.

TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, ESPN, YES (New York), FS West (Los Angeles)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Angels RH Garrett Richards (NR) vs. Yankees RH Ivan Nova (10-4, 3.81 ERA).

Richards will make his major league debut at Yankee Stadium, a somewhat surprising choice by Angels manager Mike Scioscia. The 23-year-old will be called up from Double A Arkansas on Wednesday to take the spot of Joel Pineiro, who was demoted to the bullpen. Richards has gone 12-2 with a 3.06 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 141 innings at Arkansas, but has also walked 40 batters, which could come into play against a patient New York lineup. Nova is pitching like he has no plans to return to the minors. He has been superb in winning both his starts since his recall, including striking out a career-high 10 batters while allowing one run in 7 2/3 innings against the Chicago White Sox last time out. A winner of six consecutive decisions, Nova's last loss was against the Angels on June 3 when he gave up three runs on eight hits in six innings.

ABOUT THE YANKEES (69-45): Curtis Granderson hit his first homer in 12 games Tuesday, but he also committed a major baserunning blunder by getting picked off first base to end the game. The home run allowed by Rivera was only his second of the season in 46 appearances. Derek Jeter had his third multi-RBI game in his last nine - he didn’t register his third multi-RBI game this season until June 12. New York is getting nice production from the bottom of the order. Eric Chavez is batting .324 (12-for-37) since coming off the disabled list July 26 and Eduardo Nunez is 9-for-23 in his last nine.

ABOUT THE ANGELS (64-52): Bobby Abreu snapped a season-long power outage with a pair of homers, including the two-run shot off Rivera. It was his first multi-homer game since Sept. 19, 2010, and gave him six for the season. He has nine 20-homer seasons in his career. Torii Hunter remained red-hot in extending his hitting streak to seven games. He is batting .536 during that stretch and lifted his average above .250 for the first time since the first two weeks of the season. The Angels are a season-high 12 games over .500 but remain 1½ games back of AL West leader Texas.

FINAL PITCH: A.J. Burnett is winless in his last seven starts and extended a more distressing streak with a no-decision Tuesday. Since joining the Yankees prior to the 2009 season, Burnett is 0-8 in 12 August starts.