Pressing Yankees' scoreless streak reaches 29 innings in loss to Angels: ‘We gotta get going'

Yahoo

6 days ago

The Yankees remained comatose at the plate on Tuesday, as their lineup's scoreless streak reached 29 innings in a 4-0 loss to the Angels in the Bronx.
The franchise record for scoreless innings is 37, set by the Highlanders in 1908. Meanwhile, the team has now been shut out in three consecutive games for the first time since September 2016.
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'It's been a wild three games,' Cody Bellinger said after going 1-for-4 with a strikeout. 'It's been very frustrating.'
With their sorry stretch dating back to the ninth inning of Saturday's loss to the Red Sox, the Bombers mustered four hits against a weak Halos pitching staff led by starter Kyle Hendricks. The 12-year veteran entered the game with a 5.67 ERA since the start of 2024 and the worst Stuff+ in baseball this year, but the pitiful pinstripers had the curse-breaking ex-Cub looking like his vintage self.
Hendricks, topping out at just 89.2 mph, logged six scoreless innings while setting a season-high with nine strikeouts. He also totaled four hits, one walk and 98 pitches.
'He is different than what you face. And credit to him, I thought he was really sharp tonight,' Aaron Boone said, but the manager acknowledged his team's persisting woes in the batter's box.
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Boone said that he felt the Yankees began 'pressing' a bit on Tuesday, as not scoring for such a stretch is 'foreign for us.' Bellinger agreed, saying that he felt 'extra pressure.'
Bellinger added that the Yankees have had 'good talks' about their 'rut' and will continue to do so.
'You want to be the guy to get the hit, get it going, but that's where the patience comes in,' Boone said. 'You can't obsess on the result. You can't go up there [thinking], 'I gotta get a hit. I gotta do this.' It's gotta be, 'I gotta go take a tough at-bat.' And then when you're doing that, that's when the pitches in your zone show up. That's when you take advantage, and this group will do that.'
Boone went on to talk about how the Yankees' identity is rooted in wearing pitchers down. They haven't done that lately.
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'Whatever result we have in a series against a team, I want them to leave knowing they faced you, that it was heavy,' Boone explained. 'They got through it. They may have had success. They may have got their teeth kicked in, but where they're feeling those at-bats.
'That's our ultimate strength. That's the hallmark of what these guys do. It's been a little struggle the last couple days, which, unfortunately, is going to happen. It's always shocking to see our group not score runs, especially a few days in a row now. So we just gotta focus on the little things.
'Think small, big things come.'
Giancarlo Stanton, in his second game off the injured list, led the Yankees with two hits on the night. That was hardly enough to save a sputtering offense, though, as the Yanks stranded six and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.
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Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Baseballs' best hitter is now in a 2-for-20, 13-strikeout slump. Boone reasoned he's been expanding the strike zone lately.
Then again, no one's produced for an offense that still leads the American League in runs, home runs and OPS. Asked how such a forceful lineup could look so lost over the last few days, Boone replied, 'Baseball.'
'Because that is what we are,' he continued. 'We are one of the best offenses in the league, and we've had a tough few days.'
Added Austin Wells, who is now hitting .217 after going 0-for-3: 'I don't think there's any reason to change up what we were doing before. It's just kind of part of the season. I think everyone has the confidence to go out there tomorrow and put up as many as we need.'
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The Yankees' ongoing spiral spoiled a stellar outing from Will Warren, who set a career-high with 11 strikeouts over six innings. The rookie pitched better than the three earned runs on his line would suggest, as those came on playable singles that DJ LeMahieu and Jazz Chisholm Jr. couldn't handle at second and third, respectively.
The Angels' first run off Warren came on a Luis Rengifo single in the second, while their next two came on a Taylor Ward knock in the third.
'Will was great,' Boone said. 'A couple of almost-made plays and it's even more dominant.'
Warren also tallied six hits, zero walks for the first time this season, and 93 pitches for the Yankees, who haven't given their starters any run support in six straight games.
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'We are in a little lull,' Warren said. 'It's okay. It's going to happen. But this one of the best offenses in the league. They're going to get back to what they're doing and what we do best, and that's putting up runs and, ultimately, winning.'
Los Angeles scored again in the seventh on a Nolan Schanuel groundout, which followed a catcher interference call against Wells. The insurance run proved unnecessary.
With the Yankees' lineup sleepwalking its way through a fifth straight loss, the team will look to snap its funk on Wednesday. Scoring, of course, would go a long way in achieving that goal.
Another golden opportunity awaits, as Jack Kochanowicz is scheduled to pitch for the Angels. His 5.53 ERA is the worst among qualified starters this season.
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Ryan Yarbrough will take the ball for the Yankees, whose bats must show some life with the club trying to avoid a series loss.
'It's been a fight,' Bellinger said. 'Obviously, we're not getting the job done with runners in scoring position. We're not getting a lot of base runners. We're not causing traffic. So we gotta keep going and wake up tomorrow.
'We gotta get going.'