ANAHEIM — Twice on Tuesday the top two batters of the dreaded New York Yankees’ lineup came to the plate in the late innings of a tight game.
The Angels’ bullpen not only dispatched the duo, four relievers combined for four perfect innings against an offense that entered Wednesday night’s game leading MLB in home runs (82) and in OPS (.770).
The next challenge is repeating the feat, or something like it, so that it becomes normalized.
“Everyone’s going to have their opinions and pull up the numbers or whatever it may be, but we know that’s what is expected on a consistent basis,” Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe said of the bullpen on Wednesday. “So it is good to see but I don’t think it needs to be celebrated anymore because I think we all just did our jobs there.”
Having already extended his hitting streak to 20 games, the Yankees’ Anthony Volpe grounded out in the sixth inning Tuesday and again in the ninth. Having already hit a home run earlier in the game, Juan Soto struck out in the sixth and flew out to end the game.
In the seventh inning, New York slugger Aaron Judge struck out against Luis Garcia and Giancarlo Stanton hit a soft ground ball to second base.
The Angels rallied to win the game, 4-3, on a two-run double from Taylor Ward in the eighth inning, in an opportunity that only was available because of the assist from a much-maligned bullpen. Yet, the group still ended its 12-up-12-down magic trick with a 4.71 ERA through 56 games.
Don’t be so surprised by the success, ever-optimistic Manager Ron Washington said.
“You know, early in the season they were doing that,” Washington said. “They were coming in getting things done and the ERA blew up because they had a bad inning. It takes many outings to get that balloon down. So they showed (Tuesday) what they are capable of doing.”
O’Hoppe was behind the plate for all of it. He guided Hunter Strickland, Garcia, Matt Moore and closer Carlos Estevez to the 12 consecutive outs to…
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