Angels Lose To Yankees, 5-4, On Another Brutal Blown Save By Closer Jordan Romano

Angels Lose To Yankees, 5-4, On Another Brutal Blown Save By Closer Jordan Romano

The Los Angeles Angels snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as they blew a fine homer-driven comeback against the New York Yankees in the bottom of the ninth, 5-4, on another blown save by Jordan Romano in a sequence of plays that had to be seen to be believed.

The Angels came from behind in this one via another round of homers after falling behind 3-0 early on, and they led 4-3 going into the ninth. Manager Kurt Suzuki elected to go with closer Jordan Romano despite reliever Drew Pomeranz posting a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, and he paid a big price for his decision.

The ninth actually started out alright for Romano because of Bryce Teodosio, who made a brilliant leaping catch of a shot to left by Giancarlo Stanton that was headed for the wall to get the first out.

After that disaster struck. An ordinary pop up to the left side of the infield by Jazz Chisolm Jr. somehow fell between third baseman Oswald Peraza and shortstop Zach Neto on a ball Neto clearly should have called for. Chisolm stole second after the Little League mistake, and a walk to Austin Wells put the potential winning run on.

It was light-hitting Jose Caballero who then delivered the walk-off hit on a line-drive double to left center that brought home both Chisolm and Wells, although the tag play at the plate on Wells was close. The Angels challenged and lost, and that was the game.

This was Romero’s second straight bad blown save, and it raised questions about how long he should have the job. He nibbled and fell behind constantly throughout the inning, and when the pop up fell in it almost felt like a win by the Yankees was inevitable.

The early innings featured much of the back-and-forth, long-ball exchanges that have characterized the series. Aaron Judge started the scoring with yet another home run in the first, this one a solo shot to right, and an RBI single by Trent Grisham drove home two more in the second inning to make it 3-0.

The Angels came back to take the lead with some long ball of their own, however. Adam Frazier started the Halos scoring in the third with an unlikely home run that made it 3-1, and Logan O’Hoppe finally got his first homer of the season on a blast to left center in the fifth. Mike Trout has been a part of every Angels home-run sequence in this series, seemingly, and he brought home Neto with a two-run blast later in the inning to put the Angels ahead 4-3.

Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz found his equilibrium after that, though, and he managed to pitch 6-2/3 innings of three-run ball to go with six strikeouts. Yankee starter Luis Gil managed to make it through the fifth after the Angels home-run binge, but he was picked up nicely by four New York relievers who shut down the Angels from there, and it was David Bednar who wound up getting the win as Romano’s record dropped to 0-2.

This has been a fascinating series, and it closes out tomorrow with Max Fried going for the Yank, with the Angels not having named a starter yet.