An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried walks toward the dugout after the first inning, Image 2 shows New York Yankees pitcher Ryan Yarbrough (33) reacts to Los Angeles Angels center fielder Jo Adell (7) hitting a grand slam home run in the eighth inning, Image 3 shows Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout hits a solo homer
For the first time this season, the Yankees spent a series slugging like they are capable of.
Also a first this week: watching their pitchers getting slugged, slugged and slugged again.
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On the final day of a wild, back-and-forth series, the Yankees once again failed to keep the Angels lineup in check, or in the ballpark, as they got clobbered for an 11-4 loss on a hot Thursday afternoon in The Bronx.
The Yankees came into this series having allowed just three home runs through their first 15 games, then got taken deep a stunning 13 times in four games — five by Mike Trout, who homered in each game, two by former Yankee Oswald Peraza and two by Jo Adell, who provided the knockout punch with a grand slam off Ryan Yarbrough in the eighth inning Thursday.
“Story of the series, we just didn’t keep the ball in the ballpark,” said manager Aaron Boone, who was ejected for the first time this season after arguing a balk call that led to Adell’s grand slam. “That’s something we’ve done really well up until this series. They just kept coming at us. … Had a hard time managing contact against them this series.”
By the end of the day, all that was standing between the Yankees (10-9) and a nine-game losing streak were two ninth-inning blowups from Angels closer Jordan Romano, which accounted for their two wins in this series — though losing seven of nine is not much better.
Yankees Aaron Judge pops out during the fifth inning at Yankee Stadium. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
Those two comeback wins against Romano offered potential springboards for the Yankees to get out of this early-season funk, but instead, they delivered clunkers after each one.
“Obviously haven’t been playing to our standards, but we know the kind of club we are, especially the way we started off,” said Max Fried, who had his shortest start of the season while giving up five runs across 5 ¹/₃ innings. “That standard that we had, we’re going to get back to it.”
Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout hits a solo homer. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
Angels center fielder Jo Adell hits a grand slam in the 8th inning at Yankee Stadium. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
Through the first 15 games of this series, the Yankees had only hit 14 home runs. In this four-game set, they crushed nine — including one each from Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice on Thursday, and still it was not nearly enough on what became a miserable afternoon.
In the side battle of three-time MVPs, Trout out-homered Judge 5-4 in this series. The Yankees could not find a way to contain Trout, who enjoyed a monster throwback series and became the first visiting player ever to homer on four straight days at Yankee Stadium, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
For the first time this season, Fried did not pitch into the seventh inning. He struggled with his command for much of the day, lamenting his three walks that all came with the bases empty, and got knocked out of the game by an RBI double from Peraza — who also crushed a two-run homer in the top of the first inning — that tied it 3-3 in the sixth.
Yankees pitcher Max Fried reacts as he walks back to the dugout after ending the first inning. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
Fried left the game with two runners on base and Fernando Cruz allowed both of them to score — plus one of his own — as the Angels (10-10) rallied for four runs in the sixth inning to take a 6-3 lead.
Vaughn Grissom delivered the go-ahead hit with a ground ball off the glove of a diving Amed Rosario at first base before Josh Lowe waged a nine-pitch battle that ended in a broken-bat, two-run bloop to center field.
Then, after Rice’s leadoff homer pulled the Yankees within 6-4 in the sixth, the game unraveled in the eighth. The Angels had runners on first and second with two outs when Yarbrough was called for a balk, at which point the Yankees opted to intentionally walk Trout to load the bases. That set up Adell’s grand slam that was a fitting exclamation point to the slugfest of a series.
New York Yankees pitcher Ryan Yarbrough (33) reacts to Los Angeles Angels center fielder Jo Adell (7) hitting a grand slam in the eighth inning. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
“We’re slowly, hopefully, getting the offense going a little bit,” Boone said. “Pitching kind of carried us the first 10 days, two weeks of the season. We got to get all that synced up, though.
“I know we’ll hit our stride and feel good about where we’re going to go and we’re doing some of the right things. We got to put it together now to start winning series again and get it moving in the right way.”