Yanks KO Shohei Ohtani in opener, sweep Angels on Anthony Rizzo's pinch-hit single in nightcap

It took some kind of start for Jameson Taillon to overshadow what happened in the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader against the Angels, when Nestor Cortes again was terrific, the Yankees hit four home runs and Shohei Ohtani again got rocked at the Stadium.

Taillon nearly blew all of it out of the water.

The righthander took a perfect game into the eighth inning of the nightcap before his chance at history was broken up by Jared Walsh, who led off with a stinger up the middle that Isiah Kiner-Falefa tried to backhand but couldn’t quite handle. The ball deflected into the outfield and was correctly scored a double.

Much more disappointing for Taillon and the Yankees was Walsh scoring to give the Angels the lead on Kurt Suzuki’s two-out RBI single on a hanging 1-and-2 slider — Taillon's worst pitch of the night.

But Anthony Rizzo saved Taillon from taking what would have been an almost inconceivable loss. On a 1-and-2 pitch from Archie Bradley with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, his pinch-hit  two-run single up the middle sent the Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Angels, who lost their eighth straight. The Yankees won Game 1, 6-1.

“I was kind of kicking myself for the pitch I threw Suzuki there. The slider got up on me a little bit,” said Taillon (6-1, 2.30), who has allowed two hits in eight innings in each of his past two starts. “I was pretty sick about it, but our guys pressured their reliever to throw strikes. It just felt like one of those nights where we were going to make it happen.” 

The perfect game didn’t happen, though an overwhelming feeling in the ballpark was that after the seventh, Taillon just might get it done. 

After Taillon got Taylor Ward to fly softly to right for the first out in the seventh, Kiner-Falefa made the big play of the inning. Ohtani hit a ground shot back up the middle that the shortstop, ranging to his right, fielded behind the bag. He just got Ohtani at first, and the crowd of 33,476 roared when Mike Trout flied softly to left for the inning’s final out.

“I think everybody kind of had the same thought, but we just didn’t try to show it,” Aaron Judge said. “Getting through the top of that order, that’s where a lot of their damage comes from. You have Ward, Ohtani and Trout, that’s a tough three to go through, and he navigated through that and we were kind of hoping he’d pull it through.” 

Until Walsh’s hit — Taillon received a loud ovation from the crowd after the double — there were few hard-hit balls. As Aaron Boone put it, he had “everything going.” 

After the seventh, Taillon said, “I definitely thought there was a small chance we could do it,” but Walsh ended that possibility when he pounded an 0-and-2 fastball back up the middle. 

The Yankees’ last perfect game remains David Cone’s against the Expos on July 18, 1999. The last no-hitter was Corey Kluber’s on May 19 of last year against the Rangers.

Clay Holmes, well on his way to an All-Star Game bid, had a shaky ninth. After getting the first two outs, he walked Ohtani before hitting Trout and Walsh to load the bases. But he got Luis Rengifo to ground to short to end it, making Holmes 7-for-7 in saves and giving him 25 consecutive scoreless innings. 

The Yankees had their share of chances in the second game. They were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position through six innings and looked as if they were headed for much of the same in the eighth when with the bases loaded and one out, Joey Gallo struck out, eliciting some of the loudest boos the outfielder has heard in his brief career as a Yankee. But Rizzo got him off the hook.

Things were much easier for the Yankees in the afternoon contest, one that was delayed by rain in the top of the ninth inning for 1 hour, 28 minutes.

The Yankees (a season-high 21 games over .500 at 36-15)  got seven scoreless innings out of Cortes and homers from Matt Carpenter, Gleyber Torres, Judge (MLB-leading  19th) and DJ LeMahieu in Game 1, boosting the club’s MLB-leading homer total to 73. 

Ohtani, 3-3 with a 3.45 ERA in nine starts coming in, including 3-1 with a 2.50 ERA in his previous six starts, did not make it out of the fourth. The righthander, who lasted two-thirds of an inning last June 30 against the Yankees, allowed four runs, eight hits and one walk Thursday. 

Cortes (5-1, 1.50),  even without his best stuff, continued his charge toward Los Angeles and July’s All-Star Game. The lefthander, who got a 2-0 lead when Carpenter (11-pitch at-bat) and Torres homered in the first, allowed five hits and two walks in seven scoreless innings in which he struck out seven, giving him 68 strikeouts in 60 innings. 

“I can’t sit here and tell you I don’t look at the numbers. I obviously [do],” Cortes said of his season to date. “It’s been pretty special. I feel I go out there and control what I can control, whether I go three innings or seven innings, I try and compete. With that, I’ve had a lot of success and hopefully I can continue to do so.”