NEW YORK — Before the Yankees took the field Tuesday night, manager Aaron Boone said he hoped his team’s 11-run explosion in a comeback win Monday would launch an offensive turnaround after a weeklong rut. That didn’t happen.
New York reverted to their previous struggles at the plate in a 7-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium as the Angels slugged back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first inning against Ryan Weathers and never looked back.
The Yankees have lost six of seven games after starting the season 8-2. They’ve been held to four or fewer runs in five of their past six games. Tuesday was the first time they suffered a defeat by more than two runs this season — six of their previous losses were by one run and the seventh was by two. But the inability to generate offense was too familiar.
Angels left-hander Reid Detmers held the Yankees to two hits through seven innings before giving up two in the eighth and exiting. He compiled nine strikeouts without a walk. In all, the Yankees had only five hits.
“We know we got to do a better job of creating some things,” Boone said. “Credit to him too, though, he gets the lead and he didn’t walk anyone. So he was coming after us and we just got to get it going.”
On the other side, the Angels slammed five solo home runs. Former Yankee Oswald Peraza, who was dealt to the Angels at the trade deadline last season, cracked one of them and went 3-for-3 with a 12-pitch walk in four plate appearance.
Four of the Angels’ homers came against Weathers, whose outing was historically unusual. The left-hander gave up three home runs over five pitches in the first inning to Mike Trout, Jo Adell and Jorge Soler. All were on fastballs low in the strike zone.
Trout crushed a 94.7-mph offering 432 feet at 110.1 mph for his third homer in 10 innings after matching Aaron Judge, a fellow three-time MVP, with two in Monday’s topsy-turvy series opener.
“Obviously not a good idea to misfire a heater down the middle to one of the best hitters that has ever played this game,” said Weathers, who limited the Athletics to one run over eight innings in his previous outing. “So, definitely wish I had that pitch back.”
Adell followed with a 445-foot blast on the next pitch. Three pitches later, after Weathers fell behind in the count 2-0, Soler swatted the third homer.
“They’re a really good low-ball hitting team,” Weathers said. “Three misfires against a good low-ball hitting team is not a good start.”
Weathers surrendered five runs and five hits with 10 strikeouts and two walks across five innings. He became the first pitcher to give up four home runs and record 10 strikeouts in no more than five innings pitched since the mound was moved to its current distance in 1893, according to ESPN Insights.
In another oddity, the Yankees have yet to score with Weathers on the mound in any of his four starts this season. Last Thursday, they dropped his outing against the A’s 1-0. This time, he exited in the sixth inning trailing 3-0 before Paul Blackburn allowed two inherited runners to score on Yoán Moncada‘s two-run single.
The Yankees finally scored a run in the eighth inning when Ben Rice, who leads the majors with a 1.245 OPS among other major offensive categories but didn’t start against the left-handed Detmers, came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit sacrifice fly against right-hander Chase Silseth. That was all they mustered on another frustrating night.
“I think you see how streaky this game is and you’ve just got to take it in stride, take it day by day,” said Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who went 0-for-4. “When things are going good, you can’t think you got it all figured out. Can’t get down on yourself. You never know what tomorrow’s going to bring.”