Some losses are harder than others and some splits feel more like a loss than a tie. For the Yankees on Thursday afternoon, a series filled with emotional swings finally tipped the wrong way, as a game that felt within reach for much of the afternoon slipped into a lopsided loss by the end.
After spending the first three games of the series surviving chaos, late rallies, and narrow escapes, the Yankees could not find one more answer in the finale. Instead, a tight contest turned in the sixth inning
and unraveled completely late, allowing the Los Angeles Angels to leave the Bronx with an 11-4 win and a series split.
The finale against the Los Angeles Angels opened with the same uneasy feeling that had defined much of the previous three games. Max Fried quickly retired Zach Neto and the red-hot Mike Trout to open the afternoon, making it feel as though the Yankees might finally be headed toward the clean, stress-free game this series had stubbornly refused to provide.
That calm disappeared almost instantly. A two-out walk came back to haunt Fried when former Yankees prospect Oswald Peraza turned on a fastball and sent it into the left-field seats, giving the Angels a 2-0 lead. After spending much of the series making life miserable for his former organization, Peraza’s first at-bat was a reminder that the series was not over yet.
The Yankees answered quickly. Aaron Judge continued doing Aaron Judge things in the bottom of the first, hammering a Brent Suter fastball into the Angels bullpen. The blast cut the deficit to 2-1 and immediately restored some life to a Yankees team that once again found itself chasing early.
The Yankees nearly found the equalizer an inning later and briefly looked ready to flip the game’s momentum. Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a walk, José Caballero lined a single to left, and the pair immediately manufactured pressure by stealing third and second on the double steal, putting the tying run 90 feet away with two outs. J.C. Escarra went down on strikes to end the threat, leaving the game stuck at 2-1 and turning what felt like a prime early opening into another frustrating missed opportunity.
The Yankees finally turned all of that early pressure into a lead in the third, and it came in the kind of thunderous fashion only Giancarlo Stanton can provide. Trent Grisham worked a leadoff walk, but the inning initially seemed headed toward another frustrating dead end. Angels manager Kurt Suzuki quickly went to Nick Sandlin, who got Aaron Judge to fly out to left before Grisham was erased on the bases attempting to steal second. Instead, Cody Bellinger extended the inning with a walk, and then Stanton delivered.
With both elbows fully extended through the zone, Stanton launched a missile toward Monument Park that left the bat at 111.1 mph and traveled 446 feet. The two-run blast turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 Yankees lead.
The Yankees threatened to add on again in the fourth and briefly had the Stadium buzzing for what looked like it might be another short-porch special. With two outs, Sam Aldegheri lost the zone just enough to extend the inning, issuing a walk to Chisholm before Escarra followed with his first hit of the afternoon on a single to center. Once again, the Yankees had traffic and a chance to build on Stanton’s lead-changing blast, but Grisham’s fly ball toward the short porch died into a routine out, keeping the lead at one.
Fried looked fully back in control after the rocky first and cruised into the sixth before the top of the Angels order finally broke through again. Trout started the inning’s trouble with a one-out walk, and the pressure immediately mounted when Amed Rosario made a strong diving stop down the left-field line but could not complete the play from his knees in time to catch Trout at second. That set the stage for Peraza yet again, and the former Yankees prospect doubled to left to score Trout and tie the game at 3-3 while moving the go-ahead run into scoring position.
That was the end of Fried’s afternoon, his final line reading 5.1 innings with three strikeouts, three walks, and five earned runs. Aaron Boone turned to Fernando Cruz, his top right-handed stopper, hoping to suppress the flames before they spread, but the inning continued to spiral.
Vaughn Grissom shot a ball sharply toward third that Rosario could not knock down, allowing it to trickle into left and push the Angels back in front 4-3. Cruz recovered to strike out Nolan Schanuel, but a walk to Travis d’Arnaud loaded the bases and kept the pressure squarely on the Yankees. Josh Lowe then blooped a two-run single into center to plate Grissom and Peraza, stretching the Angels’ lead to 6-3.
The Yankees, though, answered immediately to cut into the lead. Ben Rice jumped on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth and got just enough of Aldegheri’s offering to send it over the wall for his fifth home run of the season. The solo blast trimmed the deficit to 6-4 and chased Aldegheri from the game, keeping the afternoon on the teeter-totter that had defined the series.
That momentum did not last. The Yankees turned to Angel Chivilli to make his season and pinstripes debut in the seventh inning, and after striking out Neto, he ran into the same problem everyone else had all series. Trout matched Stanton’s earlier blast with a 446-foot home run of his own into the left-field bleachers, pushing the Angels’ lead to 7-4 and continuing a historic stretch in the Bronx. Chivilli’s debut proved rough, as he finished with 0.2 innings, two strikeouts, two walks, and one earned run.
The game slipped fully out of reach in the eighth. Ryan Yarbrough recorded two quick outs before the inning unraveled following a hit-by-pitch, a single, a balk, and an intentional walk that loaded the bases. Jo Adell then broke the game open with a grand slam to right, extending the Angels’ lead to 11-4 and prompting Aaron Boone’s ejection as he argued the balk call after the inning ended.
For a Yankees team that had spent the series surviving chaos, this time the chaos finally overwhelmed them. The larger takeaway from the four-game set is even more concerning. The Angels launched 13 home runs in the series, the most the Yankees have ever allowed in a home series ever, turning what should have been a manageable series into a constant uphill battle. The most home runs ever given up to a team was not on my series bingo card. The loss drops the Yankees to 10-9 and continues the early-season rhythm of inconsistency, where strong individual moments continue to surface but have yet to fully align into complete team games.
Next up for the Yankees are the Kansas City Royals. The Royals are struggling to start the season, but arrive in the Bronx tomorrow night, with right-hander Michael Wacha and his 2-0 record and 0.43 ERA ready to face Judge and the boys. Cam Schlittler gets to toe the rubber in the series opener scheduled for 7:05 pm ET.
