Rodon, Judge and Soto Lead Yankees to Series-Clinching Win Over Angels

The Yankees got some bad injury news before taking care of business and beating the lousy Angels to win another series, their 14th in 18 tries this season. Carlos Rodon was great and Juan Soto had the big hit in the 8-3 victory, but losing Clarke Schmidt is a body blow. Down in Box Score Briefs, the Rays are just so incredibly annoying, the Cubs have been terrible, Corey Seager is on a heater, and the Red Sox almost got no-hit. Let’s get to it.

May 30: Yankees 8, Angels 3

Well, it was bound to happen. Bad news before the Yankees rolled to a victory over the Angels that gave them yet another series win.

Clarke Schmidt, who has been their second-best starting pitcher, is on the injured list with a lat strain, Aaron Boone said he won’t even be throwing for 4-to-6 weeks, so there goes at least two and probably three months of his season. What a bummer, and it’s a huge blow given that his ERA is 2.52 over his 11 starts.

“It’s definitely devastating,” Schmidt said. “I’m probably having the most fun I’ve ever had playing this game in my career. Not only having success, but the team’s winning, the pitching staff’s doing really well, and it’s just fun being able to go out there and compete every five days with these guys.

“A big part of me is I pride myself on being available and being a guy they can rely on every five days to go out there and give them a chance to win ballgames. So a big part of me feels like I’m letting the team down because I’m not doing that part of being available every five days.”

The Yankees recalled Cody Morris from Scranton, but Morris has been working out of the bullpen all year and he’s only temporary because Cody Poteet will be called up to take Schmidt’s turn in the rotation Saturday in San Francisco. Poteet has been on the IL but he’s ready to return.

Clayton Beeter might have been an option, but he’s currently on the IL and unavailable, so Poteet will get his second start for New York. Remember, he pitched the second game of an April 13 doubleheader in Cleveland because a rainout messed up the rotation, and he pitched well against the Guardians, one run on six hits across six innings to get the win. Other than that, every other game has been pitched by the starting five that began the season.

How has that gone? The Yankees’ rotation has the second-best team ERA in MLB at 2.73 and just had their record streak of 16 games of a starter going at least five innings and allowing two or fewer runs snapped Thursday night with Carlos Rodon on the mound. Meaning, Poteet has some very big cleats to fill.

Here are my observations:

➤ That streak should have continued because Rodon was great. He gave up a solo homer to Logan O’Hoppe in the second inning, then retired 14 men in a row. In his first six innings he retired 18 of the 19 men he faced, but then in the seventh - after the Yankees had taken a 7-1 lead - he gave up a walk, a single and then an RBI double to, who else, Kevin Pillar. Ian Hamilton, in his first appearance since coming off the IL, struck out two men before walking Zach Neto to load the bases. So Caleb Ferguson entered and of course, he gave up an RBI single to Willie Calhoun and that third run, charged to Rodon, ended the streak. Ferguson has been brutal almost all year. “Sign me up for six-plus innings and three runs that Carlos got us tonight,” Boone said. “Start another (streak) hopefully tomorrow.”

➤ Another streak came to an end as Anthony Volpe’s hitting streak was snapped at 21 as he went 0-for-4. He did draw a walk and score a run, though. It was the longest streak by a Yankee since Robinson Cano’s 23-gamer in 2012. “What a run it’s been for him,” Boone said. “He had one of the biggest at-bats of the night in that inning where we were able to score a big number. You’re not chasing a hit, you’re chasing a good at-bat. To get over 20 games, especially now, is pretty impressive.” During the streak Volpe slashed .341/.378/.550 with an OPS of .927, 10 RBI and four stolen bases.

➤ Aaron Judge got the offense rolling when he hit his 18th homer of the year, tying him for the MLB lead, a two-run blast in the fourth which followed a walk to Juan Soto by Angels starter Patrick Sandoval, and the Yankees never trailed again. Judge’s 1.020 OPS now leads MLB, just ahead of Shohei Ohtani.

➤ Sandoval matched Rodon for six innings, but then he was replaced by Adam Cimber, a sidearming righty, and the Yankees lit him up for five runs in the seventh. Alex Verdugo walked and DJ LeMahieu singled to get the rally started, and with one Jose Trevino walked to load the bases. Then Cimber walked Oswaldo Cabrera and Volpe to force in two runs, ending Cimber’s nightmare. Jose Suarez came in and Soto grounded a shot over the first base bag and down into the right-field corner for a bases-clearing triple that made it 7-1.

➤ Judge joined Lou Gehrig (July, 1930) as the only Yankee in history to hit at least 12 home runs and 12 doubles in a month. Also, Judge’s 24 extra-base hits in May are the most in a month since Joe DiMaggio had 31 in July of 1937. “There’s still a lot of work to do,” Judge said. “Like I’ve been saying, it doesn’t matter how you start. You’re always going to have good months, bad months. You just try to stay consistent and it’s all going to work itself out. It’s been a good month with a lot of wins, so I’m happy about that. We’ll keep it rolling in June.”

The Yankees wrap up their West Coast trip with three games at beautiful Oracle Park in San Francisco, and the Yankees aren’t catching the Giants at a particularly good time. They were a season-worst six games under .500 after a 10-2 loss to the Dodgers, but since then the Giants have won 10 of their last 13 and just took a series from the Phillies who have the best record in MLB by a half-game over the 39-19 Yankees.

Then again, maybe this is the right time because the Giants won’t have first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and outfielder Michael Conforto (both on the IL) or outfielder Jung Hoo Lee (out for the season), and they may not have shortstop Marco Luciano who tweaked his hamstring Wednesday. Those losses impact an offense that hasn’t been great, but has been decent in spots as the Giants’ .315 on-base ranks 10th in MLB and their .696 OPS ranks 14th.

Ex-Yankee Thairo Estrada plays second base and he leads the team with eight homers and 31 RBI while third baseman Matt Chapman has eight homers and 27 RBI. Catcher Patrick Bailey has been very good with a slash line of .299/.352/.477 and an OPS of .829.

On the mound, the Yankees are going to see San Francisco’s two best starters in Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks, plus Blake Snell who has been terrible so far, but is the reigning NL Cy Young winners. Also, closer Camilo Doval (2.78 ERA) and set up men Ryan Walker (2.17), Tyler Rogers (3.00) and Taylor Rogers (2.91) have been solid.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Friday at 10:15 on YES it’s Marcus Stroman (2.76 ERA) against Hicks (2.33); Saturday at 10:05 on YES it’s Poteet (1.50) against Webb (2.74); and Sunday at 4:05 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (3.30) against Snell (10.42).

⚾ I am convinced the Rays will never stop annoying me. Ever. They could be 50 games under .500 and they’ll still get on my nerves. They won for the second day in a row in walk-off fashion on Thursday as they beat the A’s 6-5 in 12 innings. They tied the game in the bottom of the ninth because god damn Jose Siri hit a solo homer. They tied it in the 10th by matching the A’s automatic runner run on a Randy Arozarena sacrifice fly. And they won in the 12th when the A’s left men on second and third without scoring, while the Rays got an RBI single from Richie Palacios.

This after Wednesday night’s 4-3 victory when Siri, who is hitting .188 on the season, singled home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. God almighty, the Rays are such a pain in the ass. They’re never out of it, which would be a quality I’d respect from pretty much any other team, except them.

⚾ I’m coming to the realization that the Cubs just aren’t very good. They just lost three of four games in Milwaukee which drops them into third place in the NL Central behind the Cardinals who were given up for dead just a few weeks ago. The 28-29 Cubs have lost 12 of their last 16 games, they can’t hit a lick, and their bullpen has been toxic lately. Since May 13, only the Mets and White Sox have been worse than the Cubs record-wise.

Even Shota Imanaga had a rough start as he was shelled for seven earned runs inside five innings in Wednesday’s 10-6 loss. Before that game, Imanaga had allowed only five earned runs in his first nine starts, so this game bumped his ERA all the way up to 1.86. Then on Thursday, ex-Yankee Jameson Taillon pitched six solid innings, but three different relievers yielded a run down the stretch, and Tyson Miller served up a tie-breaking two-run homer to ex-Yankee Gary Sanchez in the eighth to lose the game. It was Sanchez’s seventh homer of the year and he’s batting .231 with a .772 OPS.

⚾ How about the hot streak Texas’ Corey Seager is on. He has eight home runs in his last eight games. It’s not eight games in a row - he homered in four straight, took a night off, and now has homered in three straight including two on Tuesday. Seager was in a deep slump in early May and was hitting just .219 with only two home runs. Since then, in his last 22 games he’s slashing .317/.418/.732 with an OPS of 1.150, 11 homers, 21 RBI.

The defending champion Rangers have been decimated by injuries and have scuffled all year to a 27-29 record, but because the AL West has been awful, they’re only three games behind the first-place Mariners. They just got back starter Nathan Eovaldi and outfielder Wyatt Langford, and it won’t be long before they will get back third baseman Josh Jung and starters Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle for the second half of the season.

⚾ Detroit’s Jack Flaherty took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at Fenway before losing it, but he got the win as the Tigers blanked the Red Sox 5-0. Ex-Yankee Rob Refsnyder broke up the no-hitter with a single and Boston had just one other hit. Another ex-Yankee, Gio Urshela, hit one of the three Tigers home runs.