Angels’ f ive- run lead evaporates
Angels had game in hand with5- 0 lead until falling apart in the sixth with a flurry of bases on balls.
Timely hits by the Yankees send Angels to 10th loss in 12 games.
NEW YORK 6, ANGELS 5
Cody Allen may have put it best Wednesday afternoon, when the struggling reliever was discussing his demotion from the closer role with a group of reporters outside the Angels clubhouse.
“This game is humbling,” the veteran right- hander said. “It’s either hard or really hard.”
Wednesday night’s 6- 5 loss to the New York Yankees before 37,928 in Angel Stadium fell under the latter category.
The Angels, for whom victories have been so elusive in the last two weeks, took a 5- 0 lead into the sixth inning and appeared well on their way to a win before crumbling amid a f lurry of walks and timely Yankees hits.
New York scored twice in the sixth and three times in the seventh to tie the score and won with a quick- strike two- out rally off Angels reliever Ty Buttrey in the ninth.
Buttrey, who did not allow an earned run in 91⁄ innings of his first 11 games this season, got the final three outs of the seventh, retired the side in order in the eighth and got two outs in the ninth with the help of right fielder Kole Calhoun, who made a running, leaping catch at the wall to rob Mike Tauchman of a double.
But No. 9 hitter Tyler Wade singled to right- center, stole second and scored when D. J. LeMahieu f lared a single to right f ield. Closer Aroldis Chapman threw a scoreless ninth for his fourth save, sending the Angels to their 10th loss in 12 games and the Yankees to their sixth straight win.
The Angels built a 5- 0 lead on Andrelton Simmons’ two solo homers off Yankees starter CC Sabathia, in the f irst and fourth innings, and Calhoun’s three- run homer later in the fourth.
The Angels employed an “opener” for the second time in four games. Reliever Cam Bedrosian struck out two in a scoreless first and Felix Pena followed with five strong innings in which he allowed two runs — one earned — struck out eight, seven with a nasty slider and walked none.
But the Yankees scored twice off Pena in the sixth — on LeMahieu’s RBI double and catcher Jonathan Lucroy’s passed ball — and took advantage of Angels reliever Luis Garcia’s inability to f ind the strike zone to tie the score 5- 5 in the seventh.
Garcia walked Mike Ford to open the inning. Gio Urshela singled to right, and Tauchman walked to load the bases. Garcia issued a four- pitch walk to Wade to force in a run and was replaced by right- hander Buttrey.
LeMahieu hit a sacrifice f ly to deep left f ield to make it 5- 4. Tauchman tagged and took third, and Wade took second when left f ielder Brian Goodwin threw to third base instead of second.
The Angels brought their inf ield half- way in. Luke Voit hit a hard grounder to shortstop, but Simmons’ throw home pulled Lucroy to the f irst- base side of the plate. Tauchman slid home with the tying run.
Brett Gardner followed with a drive to deep center f ield, where Mike Trout made a spectacular lunging, behind- the- head catch on the warning track for the second out before f iring a throw to the infield.
Wade got back to second in plenty of time to avoid being doubled off, but he inadvertently stepped off the bag for a splitsecond to adjust his feet while Simmons kept his glove on Wade’s back. Simmons immediately called for an instant- replay review, and Wade was called out to end the inning.
Simmons lined his f irst homer over the left- center- f ield wall. His second was a towering f ly ball over the short wall in left for his f ifth career multihomer game.
Albert Pujols followed Simmons’ second homer with a single and took second when Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez dropped Goodwin’s sacrifice bunt for an error.
Lucroy grounded into a fielder’s choice, putting runners on f irst and third for Calhoun, who worked the count full.
Sabathia hung a slider, middle in, and Calhoun crushed the poorly located pitch to right field for a three- run homer, the ball carrying 404 feet and giving the Angels a 5- 0 lead.
Pena retired nine straight batters after replacing Bedrosian before running into trouble in the sixth. Of his 78 pitches, 42 were sliders thrown between 82 mph to 85 mph, most of them down in the zone. Of those 42 sliders, 13 were swinging strikes, f ive were called strikes, five were foul balls and four were put in play.