Angels hammer Hiroki Kuroda, Yankees

NEW YORK – The Yankees were back home Friday night after their eventful peak-and-valley road swing to Tampa Bay and Boston, the one that came with two smudges to the starting staff, the pine tar on Michael Pineda's neck and Ivan Nova's elbow getting wrecked.

Hiroki Kuroda took the ball against the Angels at well-chilled Yankee Stadium, and a starter got smudged again. This time, there were smudges all over on his pitching line. In fact, the 39-year-old righty was charged with eight runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings, his most runs ever allowed in a major-league career that dates to 2008.

C.J. Wilson, on the other hand, gave up one run and four hits in six innings. And Albert Pujols sent up No. 501, one of four Angels homers. So as you may have figured out by now, the start of the nine-game homestand didn't go well for the Yankees, 13-1 losers.

"Just overall a pretty bad night offensively," said Brett Gardner, who managed to get two of the hits off Wilson, two of the Yankees' six overall. "We didn't pitch well. We didn't hit well."

The Yankees had gone 4-3 on the trip and were 8-3 in their past 11 and 13-7 in their past 20 after the 0-2 start. They pounded the Red Sox 14-5 Thursday night in the series finale at Fenway, not really blinking despite two-fifths of the starting staff being sidelined.

Nova's season is over, with Tommy John surgery dead ahead on Tuesday. And this was Game 2 of Pineda's 10-game suspension for smearing that brown sticky mess on himself again, leaving the Yankees with a 24-man roster.

"I don't think the guys are exhausted because of necessarily what happened on the road trip with the injury and the Michael stuff," Joe Girardi said. "This is a group that's probably used to handling stuff pretty well. There's a lot of veteran players in there.

"It doesn't always help that you get in at 3 in the morning, but from (the events on the road), I don't think that bothered them. I think that was evident yesterday."

But there was no carryover from Boston, so they're now a 13-10 team, albeit still a first-place team.

Wilson helped the Angels become an 11-11 team. The lefty is now 3-2 with a 3.69 ERA, and he's 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA against the Yankees since arriving in Anaheim for the 2012 season.

"He was just staying off the middle of the plate," Gardner said.

As opposed to Kuroda. He faded in the second half last season and now he's 2-2 with a 5.28 ERA.

"I think he'll figure it out," Girardi said. "I think he'll find his stuff and get sharp for us. He's been a little up and down."

Kuroda started showing real signs in the second that he didn't bring his good material.

Ian Stewart opened with a single and Erick Aybar followed with another. Then Hank Conger ripped an RBI double to right, putting two in scoring position. Kuroda, through his interpreter, called that "the key moment."

It wasn't a suicide squeeze, but Collin Cowgill bunted to the right side to drive in Aybar. J.B. Shuck followed with a bouncer to short, and it was a 3-0 game.

Next inning, Kuroda nailed down the first two outs, then gave up a single to Howie Kendrick.

Stewart stepped in and launched a drive to center. Jacoby Ellsbury ran back and made a leap, but the ball hit the top of the wall and bounded over for a two-run homer.

"Right now, there are certain pitches that are inconsistent," Kuroda said. "I need to make an adjustment and get them back. The biggest thing is to improve the quality of my breaking ball."

Pujols' 501st launched a three-run fifth that made it an 8-0 game. Alfonso Soriano finally broke up the shutout with a sac fly in the sixth. But Bruce Billings served up a three-run homer to Aybar and a solo shot to Cowgill in the seventh to put an exclamation point on the rout.

The announced paid attendance came in at 38,358. There could have been 58 left at the end as a light rain fell. Maybe a few more, but you get the point about a long night for the Yankees.

But as Gardner put it, "Tomorrow's a new day."

Twitter: @bheyman99