Anaheim, Calif. ? The Anaheim Angels ended 42 years of frustration in stunning fashion blowing out the big, bad New York Yankees.

Shawn Wooten homered and hit an RBI single during an eight-run fifth inning and the wild-card Angels beat the Yankees 9-5 Saturday to win the AL division series 3-1.

“I didn’t have my head in the sand, a lot of people didn’t give us much of a chance,” manager Mike Scioscia said after the Angels won a postseason series for the first time.

“The perspective is, it’s one rung up the ladder. It has to give us confidence to beat the incredible club we just played against,” he said.

Even more amazing: The Angels hit .376 the highest ever in a postseason series against the vaunted New York staff. And the Yankees’ 8.21 ERA was their worst in 57 postseason series.

“It really got ugly for us,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “I have no reasoning for it or excuse for it. It’s a bad taste right now. They played a whole lot better than we did. They did what they needed to do and we weren’t there.”

Torre and his team could only stare from the dugout as the Angels celebrated on the field. The four-time defending AL champions were the first team eliminated this October.

“It’s been a long time coming for myself and this organization, a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” said Tim Salmon, the longest-tenured Angels player. “To finally come through and do it, it’s just special.”

The Angels, who won a club-record 99 games during the season, took advantage of another collapse by Yankees pitching this time, David Wells got roughed up.

Benji Gil, like Wooten a seldom-used right-handed batter inserted by Scioscia against Wells, also had two of his team’s postseason record-tying 10 hits in the fifth that made it 9-2.

The Angels battered New York pitching for 56 hits and 31 runs in this four-game series.

Wells, who brought an 8-1 lifetime record in postseason play into the game, limited the Angels to three hits and one run in the first four innings.

Then came the disastrous fifth when the Angels, who hit a major league-leading .282 during the season, erupted.

Wooten, who had only three home runs during the regular season, hit a 2-0 pitch over the left-field fence for the Angels’ ninth homer of the series to make it 2-all.

Gil singled one out later the first of five straight singles. With two outs, Scott Spiezio’s RBI single made it 6-2 and chased Wells, who was charged with eight runs in 423 innings.