Yankees finally snap scoreless streak at 30 1/3 innings on solo homer by Jazz Chisholm Jr.
And on the fourth day ... they scored.
The Yankees, with one of the sport’s best offenses the first two-plus months of the season, came into Wednesday night’s game against the Angels in an inexplicable skid, having been shut out three straight games and without a run in their last 29 innings.
They ran that streak to 30 1/3 before Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s one-out homer in the second inning off Angels righthander Jack Kochanowicz put an end to it (and tied the game at 1-1).
Kochanowicz, who came into the game 3-8 with a 5.53 ERA, retired the Yankees on 17 pitches in the first. Trent Grisham struck out swinging, as did Aaron Judge, who extended his first mini-slump of the season to 3-for-25 with 16 strikeouts in his last eight games. Cody Bellinger grounded out to end the inning.
The Yankees, losers of a season-high five straight entering the night, were already behind as the Angels’ Nolan Schanuel clobbered Ryan Yarbrough’s third pitch of the game into the seats in right for his fifth homer.
After Paul Goldschmidt struck out to open the second, dropping the first baseman into a 9-for-54 slump his last 16 games, Chisholm hammered a 2-and-0, 97-mph sinker 407 feet to right. His 10th homer tied the score and a palpable sense of relief could be felt from the Yankees dugout.
“I think there’s always a certain point where it’s not necessarily going your way and you feel it and you kind of feel this extra pressure to get the job done,” Bellinger said after Tuesday night’s loss. “At the end of the day, it’s the same game. We had good conversations (hitters after the game), we’re going to have good conversations. We’re going to keep going and playing for each other and we’re going to get out of this thing.”
Bellinger did his part to further that with one out in the fourth when he launched a 0-and-1 90-mph changeup to right, his 10th homer giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
That lasted until the top of the fifth when Jo Adell led off and crushed a first-pitch, 82-mph cutter to center, his 14th homer tying it 2-2.
Manager Aaron Boone, who after Tuesday’s game said he felt his hitters were “pressing,” before Wednesday’s game didn’t downplay the three straight shutouts. He just wanted to put some “context” to it.
“I think, you look over the five days, we lead the league in hard outs,” Boone said.
Boone wanted his players, who had produced five runs total in their previous six games, to be “thinking small” at the plate.
“Keeping the focus on, ‘What’s my approach here? What’s the at-bat I want to give?’ ” Boone said. “Not focusing on, ‘Hey I have to go up there and get a hit.’ That’s when you start playing into the opponent’s hands and the pitcher’s hands a little bit. So, really, just keeping it small, focusing on, ‘I’m going to give a tough at-bat here.’ It’s been a hallmark of what these guys have done all year and a hallmark of their success and an identity of who we are.”
Boone understood the negative attention garnered by his club’s stretch of futility.
“I get it’s historic because we got shut out a few times,” Boone said. “But it’s a few days out of 162 (games), so that to me is a snapshot. Especially as good an offense as we are. I get the noise around getting shut out three days in a row, but it’s more when these things become weeks where you’re struggling as an offense then you start (asking), ‘Where can we make adjustments?’ What’s going on with different individuals?’ That’s not the case here. This is a few days.”
Boone has talked for more than a week about getting Ben Rice, the Yankees’ primary DH much of the season, his first start of the season behind at catcher and followed through on Wednesday.
“Felt it was time,” Boone said of the 26-year-old Rice, a 12th round pick of the club in 2021 who always received mixed reviews defensively from rival scouts during his climb through the minors. “We think very highly of him as a catcher and the skill set he has back there. Starting to get him a little bit of experience up here at the big-league level is important too.”
Rice threw out Sayville’s Logan O’Hoppe trying to steal second for the first out of the second inning, firing a strike to second baseman Oswald Peraza.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.