Derek Jeter used to consider Angel Stadium a house of horrors, advising his teammates to ignore the Rally Monkey’s frantic gyrations on the left-field scoreboard. The current squad doesn’t possess the same adversarial relationship, but this series has brought flashbacks to those bad old days.
Jameson Taillon surrendered six runs and could not complete the fifth inning, seeing Shohei Ohtani steal home plate, and the Yankees grounded into five double plays as they absorbed their fourth consecutive defeat in a 6-4 loss to the Angels on Tuesday in Anaheim.
All four of the Yanks’ losses have been by two runs or fewer.
Anthony Rizzo and Gary Sánchez homered for the Yankees, with Sánchez snapping a career-long 20-game homerless drought by launching his first long ball since July 20. Taillon kept the Angels scoreless into the fourth, but the right-hander hung an 0-2 curveball that Jared Walsh slugged for a three-run homer.
In the fifth, Taillon was one strike away from wriggling out of a bases-loaded jam. Phil Gosselin squared up a fastball for a two-run single to center field, ending Taillon’s 92-pitch effort. Taillon walked two and struck out six, failing to complete five innings for the second straight start.
The Yankees trimmed the Halos’ lead in the eighth. DJ LeMahieu, Rizzo and Aaron Judge opened the inning with consecutive hits off right-hander Junior Guerra, and Giancarlo Stanton lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left field that brought New York within two runs.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].