Series Recap: Halos Stun Yanks
Photo Via: Brad Penner — USA TODAY SportsJust when you thought things could not get any worse, this team finds a way. With the “season on the line,” the Yanks laid down an absolute stinker against the Angels. There are now 80 games in the books and the results are just not there. At this point, this is not a slump or a few bad games. This is a long stretch of sub-par baseball.
Game 1 (Angels 5, Yankees 3)
On a hot and humid night in the Bronx, Michael King’s first inning woes continued. The second batter of the game, Shohei Ohtani, took him to the woodshed for a solo homer. Two batters later, Jared Walsh doubled home Rendon for a 2-0 Angels lead.
The Yankees grabbed one of their own in the following half-inning, but the turn at bat was not as productive as it led on. LeMahieu started with a single, then Judge doubled. The only run the Yankees scratched across in the inning was on this Sánchez ground out to third.
In the 2nd inning, Gio Urshela evened the score with a blast to left field.
As I said earlier, it was hot out. In fact, Angels’ starter Dylan Bundy suffered from heat exhaustion and had to be removed from the game. The Yankees’ bats were removed right along with him.
Chad Green dotted a fastball to strike out Shohei Ohtani, so that was worth mentioning.
The only other run the Yankees would score was the product of a missile off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton.
The Yankees went down in order on three swinging strikeouts in the bottom of the 9th inning against Angels’ closer Raisel Iglesias. The swings were ugly. It was that kind of night.
Yankee of the Day: Gio Urshela (7): 2 for 3, HR, R, RBI.
Game 2 (Angels 5, Yankees 11)
On another hot night in New York, Jameson Taillon took the mound. But it was the Yankee lineup that came to play. In the 1st inning, Gary Sánchez put the first run on the scoreboard with an opposite field upper deck bomb.
Taillon gave the lead right back to the Angels on a 2-run homer by defensive-minded shortstop José Iglesias.
But in the bottom of the 2nd, the Yankees fought back to put up four runs. Gio Urshela walked, Miguel Andújar singled, and the Yankees were in business. Brett Gardner popped up to medium left field in foul territory. Left fielder Scott Schebler got the wall and leaned over to make the catch, but it also allowed Urshela to score from third and Andújar to advance to second. D.J. LeMahieu then singled home Andújar and Aaron Judge brought everyone home with a dinger to dead center.
Shohei Ohtani smacked another home run to make it a 5-3 ballgame. It became pretty clear that he loves hitting in Yankee Stadium.
Aaron Judge going back to the wall and catching a ball over his shoulder on the run? Yes, please.
Miguel Andújar goes deep to right! Finally, the Yankees had solid control of this game.
Gary staying back on a breaking ball and driving it to left field is a very welcome sight. It made the game 7-3 Yanks and continued his hot streak.
Luke Voit joined in on the fun with his only hit of the night, an RBI double that one-hopped to the wall.
A single by Gleyber Torres against the shift scored two more runs for the Yanks, but it Shohei Ohtani’s second homer of the night that I want you to see.
Andújar collected his third hit of the game and knocked in one more run to bring us to the eventual final score, 11-5 Yankees.
Nestor Cortes Jr. and Albert Abreu were the only two pitchers used out of the bullpen and they did great jobs. In fact, Cortes now has a 1.02 season ERA. Just incredible.
Yankee of the Day: Gary Sánchez (5): 2 for 5, HR, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI.
Game 3 (Angels 11, Yankees 8)
This was the most anticipated game of the series by far. Superstar Shohei Ohtani was batting leadoff and pitching for the Angels. It was the first time in Yankee Stadium history that an opponent opted out of the designated hitter rule. Oh, and it was also the hottest day of the year in New York, a continuing trend of the series.
Shohei did not reach base in his first plate appearance, but Phil Gosselin gave him a 2-0 lead to work with before he even had to toe the rubber.
It was immediately apparent that Ohtani did not have it working for him. He issued three walks and a passed ball within the first three batters of the game. The fourth batter of the game was Giancarlo Stanton, who knocked in a run on this hit.
One batter later, Gleyber Torres tied the game up on a single of his own and the bases remained loaded.
Ohtani struck out Rougned Odor, but a run scored on a groundout from Andújar and then Ohtani lost the strike zone again. He plunked Clint Frazier, then walked Brett Gardner with the bases loaded. That was Ohtani’s final batter of the game. He went one time through the order and only recorded two outs.
Aaron Slegers entered to try and clean up the mess. Instead, D.J. LeMahieu cleared the bases with a double and the Yankees jumped out to a 7-2 lead!
With rain pouring down after a delay, the Yankees needed to just get through the 5th inning. Jared Walsh prolonged that goal by homering off Luis Cessa to lead off the 5th.
A second rain delay occurred, yet some fans stayed in the ballpark just to see the Yankees close out what looked like would be an easy victory. Brett Gardner lined a home run to make the lead 8-4 in the 8th inning, and the Yankees were so close to the end.
Aroldis Chapman came in for the save opportunity and had a similar inning to Ohtani. He issued three walks within the first four batters, then hung a slider to Jared Walsh, who rocked a grand slam to tie the game up. Aaron Boone immediately jumped out of the dugout and took the ball from a sad Chapman.
Lucas Luetge was brought in and he was no better. He allowed a walk, a single, a stolen base, another single, and a double before getting out of the inning. The Angels had put up 7 runs in the top of the 9th and led the game 11-8.
The Yankees did nothing from there, going down 1-2-3 again versus Iglesias, for a heartbreaking loss.
Yankee of the Day: Brett Gardner (2): 2 for 2, HR, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI.
Game 4 (Postponed: Make-Up Date August 16th at 7:05 pm)
Thursday’s game was rained out, which was the best thing that could have happened.
Series Talking Points
It Is Too Late For Improvement, Start Selling: Click here to read the full blog about the state of the Yankees.
Aroldis Chapman Forgot How To Pitch: On June 9th, Aroldis Chapman had a 0.39 ERA. On July 1st, it became 3.77 on the year. How does that even happen? Well, for starters, he has allowed 8 walks in his last 5.2 innings, spanning over 8 appearances. However, usually Chapman can work around that since he does not allow many hits. But here, Chapman has surrendered 3 home runs amongst the 13 hits he has allowed in those 8 games. His ERA is 17.47 in those games and he has only managed to strike out 6 hitters. Now, most of the damage occurred in only two of the games — one in Minnesota and the one against the Angels. Chapman allowed 4 runs in each of those two appearances.
Of course, some fans point to the “sticky stuff” crackdown as a possibility for his crash down to earth. Manager Aaron Boone stated he feels strongly that it is not the case. Chapman has been dealing with a fingernail issue and has not been able to throw the splitter or grip his slider nearly as well recently, so that could be a reason for all of this.
In the end, I am willing to bet this is just a phase of the season for Chapman and that he will get back to throwing the missiles he has thrown for years. But he cannot afford even one more blowup like this one.
Series Totals
Hitting
D.J. LeMahieu: 3 for 12 (.250 AVG), 2 BB (.357 OBP), 3 R, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 1 K (.690 OPS), 0 SB
Giancarlo Stanton: 3 for 10 (.300 AVG), 4 BB (.500 OBP), 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 K (1.100 OPS), 0 SB
Aaron Judge: 2 for 7 (.286 AVG), 2 BB (.444 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K (1.302 OPS), 0 SB
Luke Voit: 1 for 13 (.077 AVG), 1 BB (.143 OBP), 2 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 3 K (.297 OPS), 0 SB
Gio Urshela: 3 for 7 (.429 AVG), 1 BB (.500 OBP), 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 3 K (1.357 OPS), 0 SB
Gleyber Torres: 3 for 12 (.250 AVG), 2 BB (.357 OBP), 2 R, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 3 K (.607 OPS), 1 SB
Gary Sánchez: 3 for 12 (.250 AVG), 2 BB (.357 OBP), 3 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 K (.940 OPS), 0 SB
Clint Frazier: 0 for 1 (.000 AVG), 0 BB, 1 HBP (.500 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.500 OPS), 0 SB
Brett Gardner: 2 for 5 (.400 AVG), 4 BB (.600 OBP), 3 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K (1.600 OPS), 0 SB
Miguel Andújar: 4 for 11 (.364 AVG), 0 BB (.364 OBP), 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 K (1.091 OPS), 0 SB
Rougned Odor: 1 for 4 (.250 AVG), 1 BB (.400 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 2 K (.650 OPS), 0 SB
Tyler Wade: 1 for 3 (.333 AVG), 0 BB (.333 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.667 OPS), 0 SB
Kyle Higashioka: No appearances.
Pitching
Michael King: 4.1 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 1 HR, 4 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Jameson Taillon: 5.1 IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 3 HR, 4 Ks, W, 0.00 ERA
Domingo Germán: 3 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 2 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Albert Abreu: 2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Justin Wilson: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Darren O’Day: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Nestor Cortes Jr.: 2.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 4 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Luis Cessa: 1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 HR, 1 K, 9.00 ERA
Lucas Luetge: 2 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 1 HR, 3 Ks, 18.00 ERA
Jonathan Loáisiga: 2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Chad Green: 2.1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 3 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Aroldis Chapman: 0.1 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 1 HR, 0 Ks, 108.00 ERA
Brooks Kriske: No appearances.
Gerrit Cole: No appearances.
Jordan Montgomery: No appearances.