ANAHEIM, Calif. — On their quest to remain afloat in the absence of Aaron Judge, it looked as if the New York Yankees had received a gift from the baseball gods in the form of their schedule coming out of the All-Star break.
With an inviting six-game road trip featuring matchups with the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Angels to open the second half, the Yankees appeared primed to not only keep treading water, but also hit the ground running under the tutelage of new hitting coach Sean Casey, and even make up some ground in the AL playoff race.
Instead, the Angels completed the three-game sweep with a commanding 7-3 victory on Wednesday to cap a 1-5 road trip for the Yankees. New York desperately needed a signature outing from Carlos Rodón, its key offseason addition making his third start of the season after returning from the 60-day IL, but Los Angeles got to him early and often, starting with a two-run home run from Taylor Ward in the bottom of the first inning.
While Rodón put the team in a precarious spot on Wednesday, the Yankees’ bats did him no favors. This time, it was L.A.’s Chase Silseth — just recalled from triple-A — who joined Griffin Canning, Patrick Sandoval, Austin Gomber and Chase Anderson on the list of unsung, struggling starting pitchers that have held New York to two runs or fewer runs since the All-Star break.
In 5 2/3 innings, Silseth kept the Yankees to four hits and one run with 10 strikeouts. The Angels’ 42 total strikeouts across the three-game set marks a franchise record.
“We stink right now,” Boone said after the game in regards to the strikeouts. “We acknowledge that.”
The road trip began for New York facing the weak pitching staff of a team that sat 23 games under .500, never mind at the MLB’s most hitter-friendly ballpark, Coors Field, the Yankees squandered a golden opportunity by dropping two of three to the Rockies in their first series.
Surely a visit to Southern California to take on an Angels team that had lost 11 of 13 games would end with redemption.
But perhaps it was the Angels — now just 4.5 games back of a wild card — who were graced by the baseball gods with a timely get-right opportunity.
Wednesday was more of the same for the reeling Yankees.
Luis Rengifo extended the lead to four with a two-run blast of his own in the second, and the Angels added two more runs in the third inning to mount a 6-0 lead that immediately felt, and proved, insurmountable.
The Yankees did manage to get on the scoreboard, putting up two runs across the sixth and another in the eighth inning before the Angels responded with an insurance run. Ultimately, it was too little too late.
The sweep marks Los Angeles’ first time against New York in 14 years and just the second time the Yankees have been swept any series this season. With four consecutive losses, New York has also matched its longest losing streak of the season.
“It doesn’t feel good when you’re getting your teeth kicked in and you have a bad road trip and you’re going through a tough stretch,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “But we gotta deal with it.”
This tone, though, marked a notable shift for Boone, who has spent much of the series attempting to highlight the silver linings for his team. And the expression of frustration, as well as the confession of the magnitude of the Yankees’ struggles, extended beyond just the manager.
Wednesday brought Rodón’s sarcastic kiss to the irritated Yankees fans in attendance.
Perhaps there was no better indication of just how much these Yankees are pressing than Franchy Cordero’s routine base-running blunder in an attempt to provide a spark.
The frustration is certainly starting to boil over for the Yankees, and the only answer in sight appears to be the looming return of Judge, who they are relying on to be a savior of sorts.
For now, the Yankees will focus on what is another prime opportunity, at least on paper, to get back on track as they head home for a series with the lowly Kansas City Royals.
But if there is one thing that has become clear through the early portion of the second half, it’s that New York is in no position to overlook any of its opponents.
