NEW YORK — Nestor Cortes dominated Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, Jose Trevino hit a three-run double in a five-run first inning, and the New York Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 9-3 on Thursday to capture two of three in the star-studded series at Yankee Stadium.
Cortes ensures Ohtani, Trout won’t trouble the Yankees
Ohtani and Trout both went 0 for 3 against fellow All-Star Cortes.
With two outs in the seventh, Ohtani walked off Wandy Peralta, and Trout followed with an infield single that second baseman Oswald Peraza threw to the grass in center field. With a flyout, Anthony Rendon—who has yet to hit a home run this year—left the bases loaded.
Aaron Judge‘s single in the first inning helped start the comeback. The day before, he had hit a two-run homer and saved three runs by preventing Ohtani from hitting a home run and stopping Brandon Drury with a flying catch.
Cortes (3-0) gave up three runs on four hits in six innings. This ended a streak of nine straight starts in which he gave up two runs or less, which tied the team record. He wears a different model for every start this season, so he wore pink spikes with a pattern on them.
Patrick Sandoval (1-1) needed 39 pitches to get through the first inning. After that, he settled down and pitched three innings with no runs scored. He gave up five runs on four hits and walked six people, which tied his career high.
The Angels’ pitchers walked 10 batters in this game and 22 in the whole series.
Rizzo emerged from the shadow, IKF delivered
Anthony Rizzo went 3 for 3 with a pair of walks, boosting his average to .344. Isiah Kiner-Falefa made a couple of diving catches in the center and knocked a two-run single in a three-run seventh.
New York is 12-7 and has won five of its first six series. It split its four-game series with Minnesota. This is only the third time since 1957 and the first time since 2003 that the Yankees haven’t lost any of their first six series. This year, the Bombers are now 10-0 when facing a loss in a series.
In the first, the Yankees sent nine batters to the plate. Rizzo hit a single that put his team ahead, Peraza walked with the bases full, and Trevino hit a double that just missed the wall in left field.
In the late afternoon start, the Angels didn’t get a hit for four innings while shadows crossed the infield. In the fifth, youngster Logan O’Hoppe’s RBI single and Taylor Ward’s sacrifice fly cut the score to 5-2. After Cortes walked Luis Rengifo to start the seventh, O’Hoppe hit a run-scoring double to Ron Marinaccio, getting the Angels within 5-3.
O’Hoppe got his third hit, a single, in the ninth inning. However, it looked like he hurt his left arm, so he left the game.
UP NEXT
RHP Domingo Germán (1-1) will start Friday night’s first game of the season against AL East rival Toronto. Yusei Kikuchi (2-0) will be on the pitch for Toronto.
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