The Yankees scored five runs in the first inning and went on to beat the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday evening, 9-3.
Here are the takeaways…
– Anthony Volpe reached first base with a leadoff walk, advanced to third on Aaron Judge‘s single and then scored on Anthony Rizzo‘s line drive to center to give the Yanks an early 1-0 lead. Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval walked DJ LeMahieu to load the bases and then walked Oswald Peraza to make it 2-0 with one out. After Oswaldo Cabrera struck out looking, Jose Trevino roped a double to the left-center field wall that cleared the bases and made it 5-0.
– After retiring the first six Los Angeles batters of the day, Nestor Cortes walked Luis Rengifo in the top of the third. Cortes then got a pop-out foul for the first out, but a rookie hit Zach Neto in the foot to give the Angels two runners on base. Rengifo tagged up to third on a fly out and then Cortes escaped the inning by forcing Shohei Ohtani to ground out.
– Isiah Kiner-Falefa got a late jump on a ball hit to center field by Hunter Renfroe, but made a nice diving catch to end the top of the fourth. It’s IKF’s eighth career game in CF (all this season), as he’s also played four games at third base.
– Cortes’ no-hit bid ended in the top of the fifth when Brandon Drury singled on a hard hit ball to third. Rengifo then doubled to the corner in right field and Logan O’Hoppe drove in Drury on a shallow single to left as the Angels trailed, 5-1. IKF made another diving catch in deep center field for the second out, but Rengifo tagged up to make it a 5-2 game. Cortes then got Ohtani to ground out to end the inning.
Cortes continued to deal in the sixth, as he got Mike Trout to fly out and struck out Anthony Rendon and Drury for his sixth and seventh K’s of the day. The left-hander walked Rengifo to lead off the top of the seventh and was then replaced by Ron Marinaccio. Cortes finished after six innings, allowing three runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.
– Marinaccio let up an RBI double to O’Hoppe on the first pitch he threw, as the Angels cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-3. Marinaccio then struck out Neto and got Taylor Ward to ground out, but was then replaced by Wandy Peralta. Peralta walked Ohtani and allowed a single to Trout to load the bases, but got out of the jam by forcing Rendon to fly out.
– Rizzo and Gleyber Torres walked back-to-back in the bottom of the seventh, and LeMahieu came through with a double down the left-field line to make it a 6-3 game. IKF delivered with the bases loaded and two outs, driving in two runs on a single up the middle to give the Yanks an 8-3 lead.
Peraza made a gorgeous sliding stop for the third out of the eighth, giving Ian Hamilton a quick 1-2-3 inning on the mound. Judge walked to lead off the bottom half of the inning and then Rizzo recorded his third hit of the day, as he reached base for the fifth time thanks to two walks. Torres singled to load the bases and then Peraza drove in Judge with a line drive to left field, giving the Yanks a 9-3 lead.
Highlights
What’s Next
The Yankees will stay in the Bronx and begin a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday at 7:05 pm
Domingo German is scheduled to pitch against Yusei Kikuchi.