Another rainy day in the Bronx ended with a Yankees loss on Thursday, as the lowly Angels picked up a 9-4 win and a series victory after tagging Nestor Cortes for six earned runs over 4.2 innings.
The southpaw put his team in an instant hole, serving up the third leadoff home run of Nolan Schanuel’s career. The rookie then added an RBI single in the third inning.
More damage awaited in the fifth, as Kevin Pillar knocked Cortes out of the game with a bases loaded, two-run single, the Halo’s ninth hit of the night. Cortes had Pillar down 0-2 before the Angel hit a pitch several inches outside the strike zone.
With Enyel De Los Santos on the mound and the bases loaded again, Jo Adell then lined a double to right field. A diving Juan Soto failed to catch and keep the ball in front of him, allowing three more runs to score. Cortes, who walked one, struck out two and threw 95 pitches in the outing.
While Cortes was fine in his last outing against the Phillies (3 ER/5.1 IP), Thursday was the latest example of him struggling this season.
Early on, he seemed to only flop on the road. However, location hasn’t mattered much over his last five starts (two home, three road), as he has a 9.26 ERA after allowing 24 earned runs over 23.1 innings.
Cortes now has a 4.42 ERA this season. That number was 3.41 prior to the start of this poor stretch, which overlapped with the Yankees’ failure to acquire a starter before the July 30 trade deadline.
There were rumors that the Yankees could trade Cortes if they brought in a fresh face, but they ultimately stuck with what they had. That also includes Marcus Stroman, who has a 6.32 ERA over his last 10 starts.
Stroman was originally supposed to pitch Thursday, but the Yankees pushed him back to Sunday so that he could work on his mechanics. Right now, it’s hard to see him or Cortes factoring into the Yankees’ postseason rotation, and either could be replaced by Clarke Schmidt.
Schmidt, out with a lat injury, hopes to return before the end of the month. Even then, there’s also Carlos Rodón’s inconsistency, Luis Gil’s workload concerns and the fact that Gerrit Cole has yet to truly look like his Cy Young self after elbow inflammation delayed the start of his season.
While the Angels scored again on a Zach Neto single in the eighth, the Yankees offense fell flat against the Angels’ de facto ace, Tyler Anderson.
The lefty totaled six innings, three hits, one earned run, one walk and seven strikeouts over 95 pitches. Back in May, Anderson held the Yankees to one run over four innings in Anaheim.
On Thursday, the Bombers’ lone run off Anderson came on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s first Yankee Stadium homer. The third baseman now has 18 home runs this season and five with the Yankees after the second-inning blast.
Soto and Giancarlo Stanton added RBI singles in the eighth before Oswaldo Cabrera drilled a solo homer in the ninth.
Now 68-48, the Yankees will try to rebound from a disappointing series loss with Texas in town on Friday.
The Rangers haven’t looked like defending champs, taking a 54-61 record into the series opener. A pair of left-handers will start the game, as Rodón will take on Cody Bradford.
VOLPE EXITS EARLY
While the Yankees were getting beat up, Anthony Volpe was playing banged up after fouling a pitch off his left foot in the second inning. The shortstop was replaced by Cabrera in the top of the eighth.
The Yankees didn’t provide much information on Volpe prior to publication, only announcing that he was dealing with left foot pain and being examined by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad.