Monday night was a kind of heavyweight prize fight, with each team trading blow after blow after big home run. Tonight was much more like a heavyweight prize fighter fighting me, with the Angels playing the former role and battering the Yankees all over their home ballpark. LA took off almost immediately, hitting the same number of home runs in the top of the first as outs they made, and they really didn’t look back. New York was shellacked in this one, 7-1 your final.
I suppose that first inning was inevitable, as the one thing we know about Mike Trout is the man loves to study Weather(s):
It would get worse from there, with Jo Adell and Jorge Soler also taking Ryan’s fastballs into the bleachers, three straight solo shots that had the Angels up 3-0 before many Yankee fans had bought their chicken buckets. The Angels clearly came out hunting fastball, with Weathers far better with his slider/sweeper and changeup, and their homework paid off.
Indeed Trout was a particular thorn in Weathers’ side today, even though the home run was the only damage done. The three-time MVP saw 24 pitches in total across three ABs against the lefty, wearing out a pitcher that the Yankees have to at least be questioning the ideal role for. Weathers actually got Trout looking in those other two at-bats, but the pitches necessary ended up costing him, and Weathers was gone after throwing five innings plus a batter.
It was really a game for the FIP lovers, with Weathers boasting an excellent 10:1 strikeout to walk ratio, the kind of outing that might in other circumstances lead to the starter receiving the Player of the Game belt. Those circumstances though, the three home runs in the first and a final dinger from old friend Oswald Peraza, take the start more into the pure bizarre territory. When Weathers was locating with his secondary offerings, he was absolutely dominant, and then he left four of the fattest cookies you could imagine right to MLB caliber hitters. I had mentioned in the gamethread that Ryan might be best off to pitch “backwards”, but he didn’t seem to adopt that strategy tonight. Former #1 overall prospect Yoan Moncada added a trio of RBIs himself, one hit with the bases loaded and one porch job solo shot.
Angels starter Reid Detmers did Weathers one better, with nine strikeouts and no walks, allowing just two hits — one of them a ground ball that third baseman Moncada lost his footing on — through seven innings. The lefty retired 15 consecutive Yankees before Randal Grichuk led off the eighth with a double, his first hit in pinstripes. Grichuk would eventually plate thanks to pinch-hitter Ben Rice:
And uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that’s about it. Aaron Judge added a double of his own in the bottom of the ninth, but nothing came of it, and the Yankees dropped to 9-8 on the year.
From the Department of It Could Always Be Worse, let’s check in on the scene at Target Field:
It hasn’t been a very fun week to be a Yankee fan. Last night felt like it might be the start of a hot streak, the kind of inconceivable win that everyone gets a little extra out of the next day. Instead, the Yankees looked just as flat as they did at the Trop, and some of that pitching regression is starting to set in. Luis Gil is set to make his second start of the season after a laborious effort against the Rays last weekend, and will need to set the tone as both the rotation and bullpen have had to work quite a bit in the first two games of this series.
The third game of this series comes at 7:05pm Eastern, the weekly Amazon Prime game. I hope the Yankees see the value in starting the guy who is right now the best hitter in baseball.
