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Yankees snap scoreless innings streak but drop sixth straight

Published 1 day ago4 minute read

And on the fourth day … they scored.

But they didn’t win.

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 of Angels righthander Jack Kochanowicz put an end to it.

Their losing streak, however, continued as the Yankees dropped their sixth straight with a 3-2 loss to the Angels in front of a vexed crowd of 43,255 at the Stadium.

The Yankees (42-31), who also got a home run from Cody Bellinger, managed just three hits.

Their offense of late, which has produced all of seven runs in their last seven games, could be encapsulated by the eighth inning.

After the Angels (36-37) took a 3-2 lead in the top half of the inning, Angels righthander Ryan Zeferjahn walked Jasson Dominguez and hit pinch hitter Austin Wells with a pitch. But Trent Grisham failed to get a bunt down, then fouled out to Sayville’s Logan O’Hoppe, the Anaheim catcher. Aaron Judge’s slump continued as he, swinging at a first-pitch from righty Connor Brogdon, flied to center, dropping the reigning AL MVP into a 3-for-28 skid (with 17 strikeouts) in his last seven games.

Paul Goldschmidt reached to start the ninth against veteran closer Kenley Jansen when third baseman Luis Rengifo made a wild throw to first. Chisholm, however, flied to left, J.C. Escarra lined to right and Anthony Volpe, whose key error contributed to the Angels’ go-ahead run in the eighth, struck out.

The Angels broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth as Fernando Cruz, who escaped a second-and-third-one-out situation in the seventh, suddenly lost command of his splitter, walking three of four batters to load the bases with one out. In came lefthander Tim Hill to face Jo Adell, who homered off Ryan Yarbrough in the fifth inning. Adell hit a sharp grounder to short where Volpe bobbled the ball, killing the chance of an inning-ending double play. Compounding that, Volpe, who leads the Yankees with nine errors, misfired to second on the short throw, allowing Mike Trout, who led off the inning with a walk, to score to make it 3-2 and keep the bases loaded. Hill got out of it, striking out LaMonte Wade Jr. looking and getting the Brooklyn-born Christian Moore to ground to second.

Kochanowicz, who came into the game 3-8 with a 5.53 ERA, retired the Yankees on 17 pitches in the first. Grisham struck out swinging, as did Judge. Bellinger grounded out to end the inning.

The Yankees were already behind as the Angels’ Nolan Schanuel clobbered Yarbrough’s third pitch of the game into the seats in right for his fifth homer.

After Goldschmidt struck out to open the second, dropping the first baseman into a 9-for-54 skid 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.

But it didn’t last long as, after Bellinger’s 10th homer of the season in the fourth gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, the offense mounted little else.

The offensive drought continues.

Aaron 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

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.

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