ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Yankees envisioned Corey Kluber making major outings and Zack Britton throwing in the eighth inning.
But when the Yankees fell a third straight game Monday night, they watched as Kluber imploded in the fourth inning and Britton’s substitutes gave up the opening test in the eighth in an 8-7 loss to the Angels in the Angel Stadium.
And with the Rays, the hottest team in the sport, having won eight games in a row, the Yankees saw their deficit grow to seven games in the AL East.
DJ LeMahieu said this is the time of year when players start to be on the lookout for the standings and he remains confident in the Yankees ’chances.
“If we take care of business, in the end we will be in a good place,” LeMahieu said. “It’s a good division.”
“Our goal doesn’t change,” Gary Sanchez said through an interpreter. “That’s winning the Orient, come what may.”
To do so, the Yankees will have to find out what they have in Kluber along the stretch.
Returning from a shoulder strain that sidelined him since May, the right-hander didn’t allow a hit during the first three innings before allowing five runs in the fourth.
A round-robin match remained tied until the end of the eighth inning, when former player Juan Lagares handed Clay Holmes a simple two-out RBI for the test and the Yankees were unable to respond in the ninth, as that the Angels used seven pitchers to victory.
It was the first time from June 30 to July 4 that the Yankees lost three in a row.
Aaron Boone defended the decision to keep Kluber in the game despite three straight singles, a center lineup and a walk before Jack Mayfield crushed a big slam.
“He made a mistake,” Boone said.
Kluber was encouraged by how he felt and how Boone, regretting only Mayfield’s bat.
“I made a bad pitch in a great place,” Kluber said. “It’s a wish I could come back.”
The result was a resurgence of a Yankees attack that had been maintained in most of the previous two games in Oakland.
LeMahieu made a double to the left to advance the match and reached the opposite field double of Anthony Rizzo on the left.
Aaron Judge kept the home side in the game with a magnificent save when Giancarlo Stanton delivered an almost perfect free kick to the far post.
Rizzo scored on the play, but that’s all the Yankees would get out of Angels ’opening Mike Mayers.
With an initial 2-0 lead, Kluber withdrew 10 of the first 11 batters he faced, with only two passes to Phil Gosselin in the first.
But Kluber, barely at 90 mph, hesitated in the fourth.
The Yankees scored three two-pointers in the fifth to tie the game.
A single by LeMahieu touched Brett Gardner. Rizzo singled to center and went into the second for a Marsh error. The referee threw a hit to make it 5-4 and Stanton continued with a single in the center to tie the game.
With runners on the corners, fighter Joey Gallo fell out.
Andrew Heaney took over from Kluber to start the bottom of the fifth position and immediately left an impressive blast to Shohei Ohtani for the Angels to return to the front for a run.
A triple RBI from Lagares that hit twice gave the Angels a new run in sixth place.
Stanton continued her tear on the plate by hitting one against the rocks over the center field fence, a two-run shot measured at 457 feet that tied her back.
Peralta threw a seventh scorer and allowed a simple advantage to Marsh in the eighth. Marsh advanced to third place on a pair of pitches before scoring in Lagares’ single against Holmes.
“We’re playing a really good ball,” LeMahieu said. “We just got out of the short aspects of the last three days.”