ANAHEIM, California. – Giancarlo Stanton hit a fly ball to the left that a week ago would have landed in the seats for a long day.
But in another reminder, that his streak of 13-game wins is a thing of the past, the ball only hit the warning court of a sacrifice that left the Yankees still down for two runs in what it became a fourth straight loss, 6-4, to the Angels.
With the loss Tuesday night, the Yankees fell eight games behind Tampa Bay, the furthest they’ve had since they were 8½ behind on July 29th.
“Losing four in a row is very frustrating,” Brett Gardner said of losing four in a row for a total of six races. “Simply unacceptable. We have been playing good baseball for some time … We have been to matches and we have had the opportunity to change the result. We just haven’t been able to do that. “
“We’ve had to recover a lot this year,” Jameson Taillon said. “It’s a lot more fun to win than to lose.”
The Yankees still had a chance after Stanton’s ball, when Joey Gallo walked before Gio Urshela faced Jake Petricka.
Urshela threw a 3-2 throw to provoke Luke Voit, who also signaled a full count instead of Rougned Odor. And for the second night in a row, the Yankees were unable to meet in the ninth against the nearest Raisel Iglesias.
Perhaps as troubling to the Yankees as the longest streak of defeats since they also fell four in a row from June 25-28 is the fact that the Rays have won nine in a row.
On Tuesday they faced a season-high five double plays and Taillon, who recently pitched as the dominant right-hander they had hoped would arrive from Pittsburgh, had a second consecutive clunker.
“We lost a few games to the razor,” Aaron Boone said. “The story was that we got to five double plays that really hurt us. I felt like, man, we should have broken it. [game] open. We have not been able to achieve this great success. “
And, to complete the ugliness, Shohei Ohtani, who did not throw on Tuesday because he was hit by a right-handed throw on Saturday, stole home with a double-delayed steal to give the Angels insurance.
Like Corey Kluber on Monday, Taillon didn’t give up a hit in three innings before falling in the fourth.
Taillon allowed six runs in 4 innings of ² / and and has given up 11 races won in 8 innings of ¹ / in in his last two outings. And during his last four outings, the right-wing ERA has gone from 3.82 to 4.44.
The Yankees squandered a goal opportunity at the top of the first.
DJ LeMahieu started with a single and was able to advance to second place on the field of Anthony Rizzo because he ran on the field 3-2. Aaron Judge followed with a walk, but Stanton made a double play to end the threat.
Rizzo gave the Yankees an advantage with an early score in the fourth.
Taillon retired the first nine batters he faced (at one point four in a row) before David Fletcher opened the bottom of the quarter with a flare single on the right.
Ohtani walked before Gosselin appeared a bunt.
Jared Walsh has punched a three-run homer, while the Angels hit the fourth inning on consecutive nights.
Fallen Gary Sanchez brought the Yankees closer to the fifties in a fifth with a solo shot to the left. He was the first homer of the receiver since July 20th.
But Taillon could not get past the final part.
With the runners in second and third place and no one outside, he got Lagares to put himself on the field of play to prevent the runners from advancing and Rizzo made an even better play on Fletcher’s hard base until the first for the second out. After a deliberate walk to Ohtani, Gosselin headed to the center to drive in two races and end Taillon’s night with the Yankees at three.
Joely Rodriguez came in and Gosselin took off with a delayed robbery. Sanchez made an inadvisable throw to second, where Urshela grabbed her in front of the bag and fired home, as Ohtani tried to score from third place. Ohtani slipped under Sanchez’s tag during the third inning of the inning.
“These works are do or die,” Rizzo said. “You need a perfect pitch to get it. Ohtani is fast. “
The Yankees turn to Gerrit Cole on Wednesday to try to avoid the sweep.
“This game will overwhelm you if you let it go,” Gardner said. “I think we have a strong group. We’ll see how we play this past month. “