Shohei Ohtani didn’t pitch. He also didn’t hit, going Oh-9 in a series his Angels lost to NY. The Yankees have now won 5 of 6 games head to head vs. the Halos this season. Masahiro Tanaka was ready for the pitching match-up that all of Japan was waiting to see, but it never happened. Angels management pushed Shohei’s start back a few days due to “workload management” . Ohtani only pitches once a week but ohhh-kay, that was their decision. Some feel the Angels did not want to subject Ohtani to the Yankee lineup, short porch, and potential boo’s from Yankees fans. Well Shohei avoided pitching but could not avoid the fan reaction. Ohtani was BOO’d loudly all weekend. Tanaka (W) pitched a solid six innings in the Sunday rubber game, including striking-out Ohtani twice as the Yankees won 3-1 (Tanaka > Richards)
Leading up to Sunday’s (May 27th) rubber game SHO’DOWN, The Yanks and Halos split the first two games in the Bronx:
Friday (May 25th) : Yankees 2-1 Win (Green > Johnson). Severino pitched a solid 6 innings allowing only 1R, an opposite field HR by Trout. Gleyber Torres had the late inning solo HR that proved to be the game winner. Green got the win but you have to give an “assist” to Aaron Judge..literally. In fact give him two assists. Judge threw-out two base runners including one at the plate when he uncorked a laser beam throw that was clocked at 100.5mph !!
Saturday (May 26th) : Yankees Lose 11-4 ( Barria > Gray) . Gray was horrendous, going only 3.2 innings, allowing 5 Runs, 7 Hits & 3 BB. It was the Mike Trout show as he single-handedly beat the Bombers who had built a 4-1 lead with HRs from Gardner, Judge & Romine. Trout had an historic day, going 5-5 with 3 2B, and a HR !!
For the series Ohtani was 0-9 with 5 K’s. Maybe he was affected by the BOO-ing. To be fair, he did have 4 walks and hit a couple of balls right at fielders & also hit a number of hard foul balls.
You can easily make the argument that BOO-ing did affect Giancarlo Stanton. Even though he is wearing the hometown pinstripes, Yankee fans have shown little patience for his failures , going all the way back to the season home opener. Stanton hit safely in all 7 road games leading up to this home-stand, during which, he is now 0-12 with 7 K’s. He left 6 runners on base in Sunday’s game alone. Small Sample Size you say? Consider this, for the season Giancarlo Stanton has a .210 BA at home and .302 BA on the road. (Maybe Yankees fans should consider BOO-ing Mike Trout next time he comes to town)
After taking 2 of 3 from the Angels, the Yankees now own a 33-16 (.673w%) record. 16 losses is the lowest in all of baseball, but because they have played 4 less games (due to rain outs), they find themselves 1 game behind the division leading Boston Red Sox who are 36-17 , .679 winning%
Next up .. the AL Western division leading Astros (34-20, .630w%) come to town.
Big series vs. the defending World Series Champs?
HOU .. got that right.
As always,
GO NYY !!
