NEW YORK — For eight innings, the Yankees looked like a team that had run out of answers. They built a 3-0 lead, watched it vanish by the fifth, then went scoreless against an Angels pitching staff all the way through the eighth. Then Jazz Chisholm Jr. popped a ball into the air, and everything changed.
Angels shortstop Zach Neto and third baseman Oswald Peraza, the ex-Yankee, stared at each other as a routine popup dropped untouched onto the infield dirt. That one misplay cracked open the door, and the Yankees kicked it down. Jose Caballero roped a two-run walk-off double off closer Jordan Romano to cap a stunning 5-4 comeback Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium on Jackie Robinson Day, lifting New York to 10-8 on the season.
Caballero delivers again in the clutch
With one out and nobody on in the ninth inning, Chisholm lifted a lazy popup toward the left side. Neto and Peraza converged but never communicated, and the ball hit the dirt for a gift single. Neto did not deflect blame when asked about it afterward.
Chisholm stole second. Austin Wells drew a full-count walk against Romano, putting two runners on with one out. Both took off on a double steal as Caballero lined a 1-2 slider into left-center. Chisholm scored easily.
Third base coach Luis Rojas waved Wells home from first base, and Wells slid his left foot just under catcher Logan O’Hoppe’s tag at the plate. The Angels challenged. Replay confirmed it. The Yankees had their win.
It was the second walk-off hit of Caballero’s career. Both have come as a Yankee, both in games the Yankees needed to steal. Asked about his comfort in pressure situations, Caballero did not hesitate.
“Whenever you give us a chance, it’s a dangerous thing,” Caballero said.
Manager Aaron Boone had already acknowledged before the ninth that this offense has not been flowing freely. Once the inning was over, he gave an honest read of where the club stands right now.
“It’s not easy for us necessarily right now,” Boone said, “but just a lot of really gritty plays there at the end.”
Judge and Grisham build an early cushion
The Yankees gave their starter a cushion right out of the gate. Aaron Judge, who has been the team’s only consistent offensive force this week, opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz. It was Judge’s seventh homer of the season, his fourth in four games, and his third of this series against Los Angeles. He drove it the opposite way to right field at 375-foot career blast No. 375.
Trent Grisham then came through with a two-out, two-run single to right in the second, scoring Chisholm and Caballero to push the Yankees advantage to 3-0. It was the kind of two-out hit the Yankees lineup has struggled to produce with any consistency during this early stretch of the season.
Kochanowicz settled in from there, completing 6.2 innings with four hits, four walks, and six strikeouts. The Angels bullpen then held the Yankees scoreless from the third inning through the eighth, a stretch of six shutout frames that nearly buried New York for a second straight night.
Gil’s home run problem surrenders the lead
Yankees right-hander Luis Gil allowed three home runs in five innings, surrendering all four Angels runs on five hits and two walks while striking out five. He threw 83 pitches. Every run came on a fastball.
Adam Frazier hit a solo shot in the third. Logan O’Hoppe followed with another solo blast, sending a 95 mph fastball 427 feet over the left-center wall. Then in the fifth, Mike Trout crushed a two-run shot to give Los Angeles a 4-3 lead. It was Trout’s fourth home run of the series and the hit that made a Yankees comeback look nearly impossible.
Trout became the first visiting player since Miguel Cabrera in 2013 to homer in three straight games at the current Yankee Stadium. Boone acknowledged the Yankees pitching problem while recognizing what fans witnessed this week.
“You’re watching two first-ballot Hall of Famers put on a show,” Boone said. “It’s been impressive. I’m hoping we can slow the other show a little bit.”
Gil averaged 95.6 mph and generated 12 swings and misses but could not avoid the long ball. He has not matched his 2024 Rookie of the Year form through his first two Yankees starts. His catcher found more to like in it than the box score suggested.
“I thought he threw way better than the line says,” Wells said.
Bullpen holds the line, sets up the comeback
After Gil was pulled trailing 4-3, the Yankees bullpen delivered four scoreless innings. Tim Hill, Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick, and David Bednar each threw a clean frame. Bednar struck out two in a perfect ninth to earn the win. Without those four zeroes, the comeback would have had no runway.
Romano has now blown two saves in three nights at the Stadium. The Yankees have made him pay both times. His ERA against the Yankees across 26 career appearances stands at 6.17. The Angels closer has become a recurring problem for his own team in the Bronx.
Wells, who scored the winning run from first base, put the mood plainly afterward.
“Every win matters,” Wells said. “Doesn’t really matter how you get it done.”
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