ANAHEIM -- Jered Weaver knows a little bit about the Angels' recent rivalry against the Yankees.

He knows that the Angels have been the one team that has given the Yankees fits in recent years. The Angels are 23-14 against New York in their previous 37 meetings and eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs in 2002 and 2005.

And that's why Weaver is expecting a playoff atmosphere when he takes the mound Friday in the series opener at Angel Stadium.

"All the Yankees fans come out of the woodwork here and come in and root their team on," Weaver said. "It's obviously a big series. Everyone loves watching the Yankees play. It will be a lot of Angels fans and Yankees fans, so it should be a good time. Obviously, the environment is a bit greater because the Yankees are who they are, but I'm looking forward to it."

Angels catcher Jeff Mathis echoed Weaver's sentiments about the crowd at the Big A when the Yankees come into town.

"When those guys come into town they have fans everywhere," Mathis said. "They have fans in Southern California, and they seem to find their way to Angel Stadium. It will be exciting."

Even though Weaver has seen the rivalry at Angel Stadium firsthand in his three-year Major League career, he has never pitched against the Yankees at home, as all three of his starts against them came at Yankee Stadium.

Weaver pitched against the Yankees in his previous start on Saturday, but it didn't turn out too well. He allowed six earned runs over five innings, snapping a streak of six consecutive starts in which he allowed three earned runs or fewer.

Weaver said it's just important for him to forget about his previous start and leave the talk of the rivalry to the fans.

"I just take it like any other game," Weaver said. "I don't consider it a rivalry for me. It's just two teams playing well and going into battle."

Pitching matchup
LAA: RHP Jered Weaver (9-9, 4.37 ERA)
The strapping right-hander had a strange performance at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. After striking out the first four men he faced, a two-out, two-run homer by Wilson Betemit in the second inning seemed to unravel him. By the time he departed two batters into the sixth inning, Weaver had yielded three more homers and six runs on eight hits. The problem was location, not stuff. Perhaps the extra day of rest he will be pitching on will help. He's 2-1 with a 5.63 ERA in three career starts against the Bronx Bombers.

NYY: RHP Ian Kennedy (0-3, 7.41)
With Joba Chamberlain on the disabled list, the Yankees will add Kennedy to their starting rotation in time for Friday's start. Kennedy, who was winless in nine appearances (eight starts) this year before being placed on the DL with a strained right lat muscle, went 4-2 with a 2.14 ERA in nine games (eight starts) at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, allowing 29 hits in 46 1/3 innings.

Tidbits
Vladimir Guerrero's first-inning home run Wednesday gave him 20 for the season, making him just the fourth Angels player to have at least 20 home runs in five consecutive seasons. The other three are Tim Salmon (six seasons from 1993-98), Brian Downing (five seasons from 1984-88) and Garret Anderson (five seasons from 1999-2003). ... Anderson's first-inning double extended his hit streak to 13 straight games. ... Right-hander Ervin Santana allowed a home run to Luis Montanez in his first Major League at-bat in the third inning on Wednesday. ... The Angels are off Thursday.

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Up next
• Saturday: Angels (John Lackey, 9-2, 3.10) vs. Yankees (Dan Giese, 1-3, 2.51), 12:55 p.m. PT
• Sunday: Angels (Joe Saunders, 14-5, 3.03) vs. Yankees (Andy Pettitte, 12-9, 4.34), 12:35 p.m. PT
• Monday: Off-day