Schadenfreude 304 (A Continuing Series)

Angels  - 210 010 007 - 11  9  0
Yankees - 700 000 010 -  8  9  1 

Ian O'Connor, Post:

Aroldis Chapman took the mound inside Yankee Stadium on the other side of midnight, with dramatic visuals of fireballs exploding around him on the big center field board. Chapman is rightfully advertised as a flamethrower, which was never more fitting than it was early Thursday morning, when he might have burned down the petrified remains of this Yankees season. . . .

Chapman was charged to protect an 8-4 lead. It was not a difficult ask, even if two lengthy rain delays made it feel like this game had started last Friday. This was a two-foot putt, and the opponent was ready to concede. The Angels were anxious to get back to their hotel to grab a few hours of sleep before returning to the Stadium for the series-ending matinee.

Truth is, this game was over in the first inning. The Angels knew it, the Yankees knew it, and every man, woman and child in the stands knew it. The Yankees knocked out the sport's reigning freak of nature, Shohei Ohtani, before he could even record three outs, tagging him for seven runs.

The rest was supposed to be a formality. In fact, it seemed certain during the second rain delay of 91 minutes that the umps would call it a night. But they never did. They kept the Angels in the ballpark and, as it turned out, right in the game. Chapman got the ball in the ninth, and proceeded to show his employers that this team had not even come close to hitting rock bottom.

The closer walked three of the first four batters he faced, and then threw ball one to Jared Walsh. 

Chapman looked like a man who didn't believe in himself . . .

Now he had to give Walsh something to hit, and hit the damn thing Walsh did. It was an 84-mph slider that went sailing into the dark night, while the diehards in the diminished crowd gasped in horror. Chapman had just surrendered the first grand slam of his distinguished career, at the worst possible time. Lucas Luetge tried and failed to bail him out, and the Angels stole an 11-8 victory that stands as perhaps the most devastating regular-season defeat of Aaron Boone's managerial career. . . .

Boone called the loss terrible, frustrating, disappointing . . . But the manager made it clear that this was not the time for yet another sitdown with his beleaguered team.

"We've spoken a ton," Boone sniped. "Everyone's said everything they needed to. . . . We need to go out and play full games and start hammering people."

The Yankees don't look capable of hammering anything right now, other than the final nail in their own coffin. . . .

Just the other day, GM Brian Cashman said the Yankees "suck right now." He said that his product "stinks to high heavens."

Have you ever met another general manager who would say those words in a confessional booth, never mind during an impromptu media session in the nation's most volatile market? . . .

The $201 million Yankees have no choice but to own this latest unmitigated disaster. Above all, Chapman has to own it, just like he had to own Jose Altuve's walk-off homer in the ALCS. His ERA over his last 13 appearances is now north of 6.00.  . . . He said through an interpreter that he needed to "find myself again [and] be the Chapman that started the season."

Problem is, it might already be too late. Boone said the season was on the brink, and this is how his team responded. If the Yankees still had a chance to salvage something, it felt like their flamethrower just burned it down.

Greg Joyce, Post:

Shohei Ohtani spotted the Yankees seven runs before the first inning ended Wednesday night.

Eight innings, two rain delays and some five hours later, Aroldis Chapman and Lucas Luetge returned the favor to place the dagger and twist it in a downright brutal loss.

After Chapman walked the bases loaded and allowed a game-tying grand slam, Luetge relieved him and gave up three more runs to send the Yankees to an 11-8 loss to the Angels. . . .

The Yankees (41-39) had led 7-2 after the first inning and entered the ninth with an 8-4 lead. It served as the latest stunner in their inconsistent season . . .

Chapman was booed off the mound by the remaining fans at Yankee Stadium after giving up the grand slam to Jared Walsh on a slider. It marked the second time he had coughed up a lead in as many appearances — this one dropping the Yankees to 8½ games back of [the] first place [Boston Red Sox] in the AL East. . . .

Luetge relieved him and issued a walk and a single before pinch-hitter Luis Rengifo came through with a two-run, two-out single to put the Angels ahead 10-8. Taylor Ward added an RBI double as the Angels batted around, leading to the crowd mustering a "Fire Boone" chant before the inning mercifully ended. . . .

The game featured a pair of rain delays — the first lasting 42 minutes in the bottom of the third and the second taking 91 minutes after the top of the fifth — with thunderstorms rolling through The Bronx.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Aroldis Chapman is now a problem. Handed a four-run lead in the ninth inning Wednesday night, the Yankees closer blew it. Chapman and Lucas Luetge gave up seven runs in the top of the ninth as the Yankees suffered their worst loss of the year, falling 11-8 to the Angels in a rain-delayed game at Yankee Stadium.

It was the fifth loss in the last six games for the Yankees (41-39) . . . They are continuing their inconsistent play, hovering around the .500 mark and digging themselves out of contention for a playoff spot.

But this loss was the worst of the year to date. . . .

It began with a bang, the Yankee bats chasing Angels' two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani out after allowing seven runs on two hits and four walks in the first inning.

And ended with a whimper. . . .

Chapman walked the first batter he faced, throwing just one strike, but he went to a full count on both Max Stassi and Anthony Rendon but could not finish them off. That set up the game-tying grand slam for Jared Walsh. Lucas Luetge gave up three coming in relief of Chapman.

In his last eight appearances, Chapman has allowed 11 earned runs, three home runs and he has walked eight. . . .

Boone does not think it's an issue.

"Look I think a lot of them have been different," Boone said of Chapman struggles. . . . "Today, he just struggled obviously" . . .

Chapman was booed off the mound by the few fans who remained at Yankee Stadium after just over two hours of rain delays. . . .

Domingo German allowed three runs on three hits and three walks in three innings of work. . . . German has allowed 17 earned runs over 15.1 innings pitched in his last four starts. . . .

With the calendar flipping to July, the Yankees have to find a way to turn this around quickly.

"We've got to pick this sh-t up," Stanton said.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Aaron Judge, One Of Yankees’ Best Hitters, Given Day Off Against Angels Pitcher Shohei Ohtani

It's not easy. When you have one of the best sluggers in baseball on your roster, when the offense around him is struggling to consistently score runs and you are already at the point in the season where you need wins in the worst way, it's not easy to commit to giving your slugger a day off to rest and recover. . . .

Judge does have a history of injuries that raises concern whenever he is not in the lineup.

He had an oblique injury in 2019 that cost him 54 games. . . . Judge, who missed all of the traditional spring training with a shoulder issue and punctured lung in 2020 before it was shut down by COVID-19, missed half of the 60-game abbreviated season in 2020 with a calf strain.

Greg Joyce, Post:

Two days after Yankees manager Aaron Boone manager said the "season is on the line," Aaron Judge was on the bench Wednesday for a key showdown against Shohei Ohtani and the Angels.

The Yankees choked away a big lead without him — scoring seven off Ohtani in just two-thirds of an inning before Aroldis Chapman and Lucas Luetge gave up seven in the ninth in a disastrous 11-8 loss.

Boone said he was just giving Judge a day off, despite the urgency of the series for the middling Yankees . . .

Gio Urshela was also out of Wednesday's lineup. Boone, as with Judge, called it "just a day [off]."