ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The sight became shockingly familiar to the New York Yankees -- their pitchers got pummeled game after game by the upstart Angels.

Instead of advancing the American League Championship Series for the fifth consecutive season, New York was handed its earliest exit since 1997.

''It's not a good feeling,'' shortstop Derek Jeter said. ''I mean, you have one goal, and that's to get to the World Series and win a championship. You shouldn't accept losing.''

David Wells did no better than Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina, getting chased in embarrassing fashion as Anaheim eliminated the Yankees with a 9-5 victory Saturday that gave the Angels a 3-1 victory in their AL Division Series.

Coming into the playoffs, the Yankees were worried about Mariano Rivera, who made three trips to the disabled list during the season.

He hardly mattered.

The pitchers the Yankees spent millions of dollars on to get to their closer -- Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Weaver, Ramiro Mendoza, Mike Stanton and Steve Karsay -- resembled the Tampa Bay Devil Rays more than the staff that led New York to its fifth consecutive AL East title.

And now they'll have to answer to the big man in Tampa, owner George Steinbrenner.

''We ran into a buzzsaw,'' general manager Brian Cashman said. ''It was a combination of the Angels' hitters and maybe our pitching not being as good as it normally is. We had higher goals set, but you can't will it to happen. You have to go out and play the game. There's nothing guaranteed.''

A staff that compiled a 3.87 ERA during the season, the fourth-best in the American League, gave up 31 runs and 56 hits to the Angels and had an 8.21 ERA -- the worst in the Yankees' 57 postseason series. Anaheim's .376 average was the highest of any major league team in any postseason series.

New York's four starters allowed 20 runs and 32 hits -- including five home runs -- in 17 1/3 innings for a 10.38 ERA.

Following the ninth-inning Game 7 defeat against Arizona in the World Series last year, Steinbrenner vowed, ''We'll be back. Mark that down. We'll be back.''

He didn't realize it would turn out to be back in the losing locker room.

''We just ran into a team that was red-hot and we fell a little short,'' said first baseman Jason Giambi, who left Oakland after the playoff defeat last year to the Yankees and signed with New York.

''They had guys who stepped up and had big series. We had our opportunities, we scored runs, but they just kept grinding it out night after night and they never quit. We never could quite shut them down.''

The Yankees, who looked out of their dugout with blank stares when Nick Johnson ended the misery with a popout, are faced with their most disappointing end to a season since Cleveland overcame a 2-1 deficit to win Games 4 and 5 in the first round five years ago.

After winning the opener against the Angels, a team that came to Yankee Stadium with only one player who had been in the postseason, New York lost three consecutive postseason games for the first time since blowing a 2-0 lead to Seattle in the 1995 division series.

That led to the ouster of manager Buck Showalter and the hiring of Joe Torre, who now must explain to Steinbrenner why his team couldn't hold a 5-4 lead in Game 2, a 6-1 lead in Game 3 and a 2-1 lead in Game 4.

No New York starter made it past the sixth inning against the Angels.

Only once during the season had Yankees starters failed to go at least six innings in four consecutive starts. And when that happened from May 22-25 against Toronto and Boston, the rotation included Adrian Hernandez, Ted Lilly, Clemens and Wells.

Wells, personally signed by Steinbrenner during the offseason, came into Saturday with an 8-1 postseason record. He was pounded for eight runs and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings in his first postseason start since Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against San Diego.

''They just got on a roll and it clicked for them,'' Wells said. ''They kept getting base hits, and they just kept running and running. They're a good hitting team.''

Jeter's 100th postseason hit -- a major league record -- and .500 batting average in the series -- was of little consolation to a player who views World Series celebrations as the only proper way to end the season.

''Everything that was thrown up there, they hit,'' Jeter said. ''They just flat-out beat us. If they keep playing like that, I don't see any team beating them.''

Leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano batted just .118 and botched crucial plays at second base. Jorge Posada hit just .235, Johnson only .182 and big-money midseason acquisition Raul Mondesi .250.

The little things the Yankees did wrong all season -- such as errors and leading the major leagues in grounded into double plays -- killed them against the Angels. Soriano's error was critical Saturday, even though all the runs were earned.

When they left Anaheim on Saturday night for the long trip back to the Bronx, the Yankees shouldn't have spent time wondering what went wrong. Their awful play spoke for itself, and they have many sure-to-be tumultuous months to think about it.

''They capitalized on every mistake that we made in this series,'' Wells said. ''They were just the better team, and they should be proud of what they did.''