The losing continues. This time, the Yankees got 2 hits — one a solo homer by Gleyber Torres that pulled NY to within 2-1 in the 3rd inning and gave them brief hope.
Their next hit was a 1-out single by Anthony Volpe in the 8th.
In between and afterwards, there was nothing. Patrick Sandoval — who came in with a 4-7 4.41 record — pitched 7.1 innings of 2-hit ball. The Yanks got 3 walks.
Domingo German needed to be perfect with that kind of offense behind him. He wasn’t.
“Might be the last Yankee game I watch for a while,” tweeted former Yankee Phil Hughes.
“GT obviously smoked the homer, and Volpe was able to chase him with the hit,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards, calling out the Yankees’ 2 hits. “But otherwise we just weren’t able to get much of the barrel on the ball enough. We had a baserunner or two — first 2 innings we were able to work some walks. But we know we have to be better. Period.”
NY falls to 50-46, still 9 behind Tampa which lost Again! In fact everyone in the AL East lost — so the Yanks remain 8 behind Baltimore, 3.5 behind Toronto, and 1 behind Boston. The Angels improve to 48-48, 9 behind Texas.
1. German Not Perfect
German only allowed 4 hits and had 9 strikeouts but coughed up a 2-run homer to the Red Hot Mickey Moniak in the 1st, had control problems in the 3rd which resulted in a run, and yielded a triple to Shohei Ohtani in the 5th that resulted in 2 runs.
Aaron Boone had been talking about how good Moniak was after the prior night’s game. Moniak bats behind Ohtani and is the main reason you don’t want to intentionally walk Ohtani so much — Moniak is batting .336 (.369 OBP) playing centerfield for LA.
Moniak went 3 for 4 in this game including the 2-run homer to right off German in the 1st.
one of the top 2 Mickeys in the area and he's not #2 😏#GoHalos pic.twitter.com/QC0gxtcSv0
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) July 19, 2023
In the 3rd, German walked the first 3 batters to load the bases with nobody out, then struck out Moniak, threw a wild pitch for a run to make it 3-1 LA, then got a shallow fly out and ground out to end the inning. A Houdini act.
In the 5th, German hit Zach Neto with a pitch leading off, Shohei Ohtani smacked a triple for a run, and Moniak reached on an infield single to 1st for another run and it was 5-1 LA.
Despite the 5 runs, German did good things out there. On another night with more Yankee runs, he could’ve won.
“Tonite I felt really good out there, competing” said German afterwards through the Yankee translator. “I thought it was a good outing except for that one inning where my command wasn’t sharp. But at the end of the day I went into battle, was able to strike out 9 guys and take the game into the 6th inning.”
2. Sandoval Shuts Yanks Down
When asked what he thought about Sandoval, manager Aaron Boone said, “He was dominating us for one thing. Sinker, 4-seamer, cutter/slider, and changeup. He was good. He was definitely sharp. But we have to do better.”
Patrick Sandoval, K'ing the Side. pic.twitter.com/Fn9u3O3Y20
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 19, 2023
Sandoval improves his record to 5-7 4.16.
Patrick Sandoval, Wicked 90mph Slider. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/JrouEPTuj3
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 19, 2023
3. Gleyber Homer
NY was down 2-0 when Gleyber Torres gave Yankee fans hope in the top of the 2nd by belting a homer down the left field line for a 2-1 game.
Gleyber goes yard 💪 pic.twitter.com/08D4iZWyni
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 19, 2023
4 Abreu Good
Down 5-1, Albert Abreu came in to pitch the 7th and 8th innings. He pitched shutout ball, allowing 1 hit, and striking out 4. He lowered his ERA to 4.14.
But the Anthony Volpe hit in the 8th was the last Yankee baserunner. They went out 1-2-3 in the 9th against Angels ace reliever Carlos Estevez for the old ballgame.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401472443
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