Yankees 4, Angels 3: Didi Gregorius stuns LA, extends winning streak to seven

This team has really struggled in Angel Stadium over the past few years. For the second day in a row, it looked like the Yankees were going to snap their winning streak, but Didi Gregorius came through in extra innings. That’s seven wins in a row!

The Yankees got their first look at Shohei Ohtani tonight, and he lived up to the hype. In the second inning, he took Luis Severino deep to right field for his fourth home run of the season. That ended up being his only hit of the night, and he was later lifted with a slight ankle sprain. The Angels said that he was day-to-day, but that might be it for him during this series.

Andrew Heaney started the game for the Angels, and he racked up the strikeouts. It was clear early on that the home plate umpire had a very wide strike zone, but he was consistent with it. In the fourth inning, Aaron Judge hit a fly ball on the other side of the right foul pole, then struck out looking at a ball on the outside corner. He ended the night with a golden sombrero, but many of those calls were questionable. Following Judge’s strikeout, Gregorius doubled down the right field line and Giancarlo Stanton drew a walk. With just one out and runners in scoring position, Gary Sanchez grounded into a force out, and Neil Walker flew out on the warning track to end the threat.

The Yankees were able to tie up the game the following inning. Miguel Andujar hit a leadoff double, then moved to third on a Ronald Torreyes single. Aaron Hicks brought him home on a sac fly to put the Yankees on the board. Up until this point, it was a perfectly normal game. It proceeded to go off the rails in the sixth inning.

In the top of the sixth, Gregorius led off with a perfectly executed push bunt down the third base line. That chased Heaney from the game, and Jim Johnson took over. Stanton then reached on a fielding error, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch as Sanchez struck out swinging. For the second time in this game, Walker just missed a home run. He was robbed by Kole Calhoun, who caught the ball at the top of the wall. However, Gregorius scored on the sac fly to make it a 2-1 game. The Angels then left the field, leaving us all to wonder what the third out was.

YES replayed this multiple times, but their angle showed Stanton tagging up at second base before he advanced to third. It was ruled a double play on the field, seemingly because Stanton left early. Again, the replays that YES showed did not indicate that Stanton didn’t wait long enough at second base. They did show a replay of Andrelton Simmons tagging second before Gregorius crossed home plate, though. Aaron Boone didn’t challenge, and we were all left confused.

Sevy was on cruise control after the Ohtani home run, but he ran into trouble in the seventh inning. After Mike Trout and Albert Pujols singled, Simmons hit a RBI triple to put the Angels back on top. He struck out Zack Cozart to end both the inning and his outing. Severino finished the night with eight strikeouts, walked just one batter, and allowed three runs off of five hits.

Just when it looked like this team was going to lose, they rallied in the ninth. Sanchez worked a leadoff walk, then Miguel Andujar knocked a double down the left field line. The Angels opted to intentionally walk Gleyber Torres to load the bases with just one out. Torreyes was due up, but Brett Gardner came in as a pinch-hitter and hit a sac fly to tie things up. David Robertson worked a 1-2-3 inning to force the game into extra innings.

Remember last year when the Yankees lost in extra innings in Anaheim because of Eric Young Jr.? Yeah, they were due for an extra innings win. Thankfully, Gregorius continued his incredible start and launched a home run to right field in the tenth.

He even took a curtain call.

Aroldis Chapman closed out the game with two quick outs before Cozart doubled down the left field line. Old friend Chris Young came in as a pinch-hitter, but lined out to end the game. If it had been Young Jr. instead, it might have been a different story.

The Yankees will go for eight in a row tomorrow with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound. He’ll face off against Garrett Richards at 9:07 ET on Fox Sports 1.