ANAHEIM, Calif. — For nine innings, this looked like the kind of night that has quietly nagged at the Yankees all year.
They had wasted a masterpiece. Cam Schlittler carved through the Angels for eight innings and had almost nothing to show for it. His lineup managed a single run. A duel with Reid Detmers turned into a slow, tense crawl toward extra innings.
Then came the part the Yankees have failed at all season.
Extra innings have been a weak spot for the Yankees for months. Close games decided late kept slipping away, or ending in a whimper. So when the tie held into the 10th at Angel Stadium on Wednesday night, the history was not encouraging.
New York had loaded the bases with one out. It had done that before and come away with little. Two quick outs loomed. The rally looked ready to fizzle again, the way so many had.
What happened next did not just win a game. It answered a question that had followed the Yankees since spring.
Austin Wells, batting with two outs and two strikes, grounded a two-run single to right off Angels reliever Luke Murphy. The Yankees dugout emptied its lungs. And that swing opened the floodgates on the most important inning of New York’s month.
Five two-out runs turned wasted gem into a series win
The Yankees scored five runs in the 10th, all of them with two outs, on the way to a 6-3 win that took the series from the Angels. It was the kind of finish the Yankees had rarely produced all season.
The sequence was relentless. Jose Caballero, running as the automatic runner, held at third when he singled to open the frame. Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked. Murphy got Luis Garcia Jr. to pop out, then retired no one else in time to matter.
Wells struck first with his two-run single. Cody Bellinger followed with an RBI single to center. Trent Grisham lined an RBI single to left. Ben Rice capped it with an RBI single to right. Four straight hits, all after the second out, pushed the lead to 6-1.
The cushion mattered. Yankees reliever Michael Fulmer served up a two-run homer to Moises Ballesteros in the bottom of the 10th before recovering to get the final two outs. David Bednar, who struck out three in a scoreless ninth, earned the win. Murphy took the loss.
Behind comeback: 11 extra-inning runs, then five in one frame
Here is the statistic that turns a routine box score into a turning point. Entering Wednesday, the Yankees had scored 11 runs total in extra innings across 12 extra-inning games this season. That is barely a run per game in the exact spots where contenders separate themselves.
On Wednesday, they scored five in a single frame, all with two outs. Nearly half of their extra-inning production for the entire season arrived in one 10th inning against one reliever. For a team that had spent the year unable to finish close games, that is not a footnote. It is the whole story.
The late execution has been a season-long gap for the Yankees, and manager Aaron Boone framed the outburst as exactly the kind of situational hitting the roster had been missing.
Boone credits a lineup finally showing length
Boone singled out the difficulty of the matchup. Murphy is tough on left-handed hitters, and Wells wore him down across a long at-bat before delivering.
“[Murphy is] tough on lefties, and Wellsy has a long at-bat and eventually outlasts him,” Boone said. “To do all the damage that we did there with two outs was massive, and turned a light day offensively into a really good way to end this series and head into an off-day.”
Austin Wells entered as a pinch-hitter, one of three Boone used in the game. The manager pointed to the depth that has let him deploy the right bat at the right moment.
“That’s where we’re at in the season,” Boone said. “Everyone’s got to be ready every single day. Because even if you’re not in the lineup, as we’ve seen a lot here lately, you may be up in the most important spot in the game. Credit to [Wells] for being ready and really, really happy for him to get rewarded.”
Wells has reworked his swing since a stint on the injured list, and he described the adjustment as a matter of awareness at the plate.
“I think a lot of it was just understanding where my swing was at and how I was missing, whether it was actually missing or fouling stuff off I should be hitting,” Wells said. “That awareness has helped for sure, allowing me to be a little bit more accurate with the bat and the timing.”
Cody Bellinger paced the Yankees offense all week in Anaheim, going 8-for-14 in the series. He kept his explanation simple.
“Routine,” Bellinger said. “Just try to stay as locked in as I can and as consistent as I can. Ultimately, when the game starts, it’s having a plan, sticking to it, and being confident.”
Schlittler’s franchise-record gem sets up standings gain
The rally rescued a start that deserved better. Schlittler allowed one run and two hits over eight innings, walked none and struck out nine on 99 pitches. The only blemish was a solo home run to Vaughn Grissom in the seventh that tied the game at 1-1 after Schlittler had retired 17 in a row.
It was the 19th time in his career Schlittler has allowed one run or fewer in a start, a Yankees franchise record that moved him past Ron Guidry, Whitey Ford and Jack Chesbro, who each did it 18 times. His ERA dropped to 2.04, a number that keeps him squarely in the American League Cy Young conversation alongside Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease.
There was a scare off the field, too. The game was delayed about 10 minutes in the sixth when a line drive off the bat of Rice struck a photographer in the head in the first-base camera well. The photographer walked to a medical vehicle and shook Rice’s hand before being carted away.
The Yankees had built their only early run in the fourth. Amed Rosario laced an RBI double to score Bellinger for a 1-0 lead. Rosario has been a career left-handed-pitching specialist but had scuffled against them this season, part of why his Yankees roster spot could tighten when Aaron Judge returns as soon as next week.
Detmers made that lone run stand up for a long stretch, allowing one run and six hits over seven innings. He carries a major league-best 1.52 ERA since the All-Star break.
With the win, the Yankees improved to 80-60. Tampa Bay lost, so New York pulled within 3½ games of the Rays in the AL East and moved five games clear of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card entering Thursday’s off-day. A weekend series against the Padres in San Diego is next, with Max Fried lined up to pitch Friday. Whether Wednesday’s 10th inning was a one-night jolt or the start of the late-game offense the Yankees have chased all year is the question they carry into the final stretch.
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