So the Yankees had quite a long and eventful day yesterday against the Los Angeles Angels. They played a doubleheader and swept the Angels out of town for their 35th and 36th victories of the year.
The first game of the matinee featured a stellar pitching matchup between last year's AL MVP Shohei Ohtani and Nestor Cortes Jr. who has been absolutely incredible for the Yanks in his last 2 seasons. The Yankees did exactly what they needed to do to get Ohtani out of the game early as they hit 3 early homers off of him. Ohtani had one previous start in the Bronx where he lasted 0.2 innings with 7 earned runs.
Now, this start for Ohtani wasn't much better. He went 3 innings with 4 earned runs allowed and left it up to the Angel bullpen the rest of the way. So in his 2 brief starts in the Bronx, he's pitched 3.2 innings and given up 11 earned runs. Yikes.
On the other hand, Cortes Jr. was once again his dominant self. He has been absolutely spectacular and he proved it again as he had 7 shutout innings and improved his season ERA to 1.50. This man looks like a definite AL Cy Young candidate and a potential starter for the AL in this year's upcoming all star game in Los Angeles.
The Yankees offense was on fire in the first game and it started right from the beginning as new Yankee Matt Carpenter hit his 3rd homer as a Yank to lead off the game and Torres followed up with a solo shot in the 1st as well. Aaron Judge also left the yard with a solo shot which eventually knocked Ohtani from the game. That was all the Yankees needed as they cruised to a 6-1 victory in game 1 of the doubleheader.
Absolutely loved how the Yankees dominated in Game 1. The pitching was spectacular as usual and the bats were alive and well throughout the game which made it an easy victory for the Yanks.
Moving onto Game 2 of the doubleheader, the Angels yet again were desperate for a victory, not only to avoid the sweep, but avoid extending their losing streak to eight games. The pitching matchup was Reid Detmers vs Jameson Taillon. Many know of Detmers because of his no-hitter earlier in the year against the Tampa Bay Rays back in Anaheim. But since the no-hitter, Detmers has been not very good and he also made a brief start for the Angels as he only went 4.1 innings.
The real story of this game was Yankee starter, Jameson Taillon. Taillon was absolutely brilliant throughout his start. Taillon took a perfect game bid into the 8th inning before it was broken up by Angel first baseman Jared Walsh. Taillon concluded his start after the end of the inning and only allowed one run through eight innings.
Taillon has been so good for the Yanks ever since his terrible start against the Philadelphia Phillies last season. He had an absolutely terrible start and since then he changed his entire mindset and pitching form and he has not looked back since then. He's been a bit overlooked by everybody this season because of how good this Yankee rotation is. Jameson Taillon deserves more respect for his dominant performance throughout the season and if he can keep this up and stay healthy, this Yankee rotation is going to be a scary site for their opponents come October.
Going back to Game 2, the Angels tacked on a run in the top of the 8th and then the Yankees answered right back in the bottom of the 8th. They loaded the bases against Angel reliever Oliver Ortega and then took the lead against the next Angel reliever Archie Bradley. Anthony Rizzo pinch hit for the struggling Kyle Higashioka and with 2 outs and 2 strikes he gave the Yanks the lead on a go-ahead two-run single.
Clay Holmes came on for the save in the top of the 9th and we saw Holmes struggle a bit in the 9th. He first walked Ohtani, then hit Trout with a pitch, and hit Walsh as well before he got Rengifo to groundout and end the game.
In the end, a win is a win and what a gutsy win by this Yankee team it was. They sent the Angels out of New York and handed them their 8th consecutive loss. All season we have seen this team battle back every game and this was just another example of how good they have been. This team is never out of it no matter the circumstances. They Yankees improved their record to 36-15 on the year and continue to dominate. They now start a 3 game set against the struggling Detroit Tigers in the Bronx.
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