The Yankees have been brought to a crossroads.
After scoring seven runs off Angels ace Shohei Ohtani and enduring a rain delay that stretched the game into the wee hours of the morning, New York entered the ninth leading 8-4, calling on Aroldis Chapman to close the door.
However, his outing was far from smooth. After walking three of the first four batters he faced, Chapman hung a 1-0 breaking ball to Jared Walsh, who hit a game-tying grand-slam, his second homer of the game.
That knocked Chapman out of the game, and Lucas Luetge allowed three more runs that put Los Angeles up for good as they held on for a jaw-dropping 11-8 come from behind victory.
“Terrible loss,” said manager Aaron Boone. “We continue to have good at-bats and give ourselves chances to blow the game open and couldn’t get it done. Let them hang around enough and then it was obviously a struggle there in the ninth.
The Yankees were buoyed by a bases-clearing double from DJ LeMahieu, as well as a two-hit game by Giancarlo Stanton, but the bullpen couldn’t hold on.
The loss dropped the Yanks to 8 ½ games out of first-place, as Boston beat Kansas City for their sixth consecutive win. They sit just two games above the .500 mark, at 41-39.
“That’s about as bad as it gets right there,” said Stanton. “We got about six hours to sleep, and then dust this off and it’s a brand new game tomorrow. As crushing as this is, it can’t linger into tomorrow. We got a quick turnaround and we can flip the script also, and that’s what we need to do.”
New York will have a little extra time to recover from this loss, as the series finale with the Angels has been postponed due to inclement weather. The Yankees will instead wait until tomorrow when a subway series against the Mets begins.
Added Stanton, “We gotta pick this sh*t up. That’s it.”
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