Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

NEW YORK -- The good news for the Yankees on Wednesday was they scored a run after 30 consecutive scoreless innings. The bad news was they again didn't score enough of them to win.

The Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 to extend their season-long losing streak to six games. The Angels will look to complete a four-game sweep Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees, whose lead in the AL East has shrunk to 1½ games, will look to emerge from an offensive funk that has produced seven runs in seven games.

"That's baseball," Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. "We know what we signed up for. You're going to play 162. You're going to hit a little rut like this, but you can't give up. You can't mope about it. You just gotta show up the next day and you got to be ready to play."

Jazz Chisholm Jr. ended the Yankees' scoreless innings streak in the second inning with a moonshot solo home run down the right-field line, giving New York its first run since the ninth inning Saturday against the Boston Red Sox. Two innings later, Cody Bellinger launched a solo shot to give the Yankees their first lead since last Thursday when they defeated the Kansas City Royals 1-0.

But the Yankees mustered just one other hit -- a groundball from Bellinger in the sixth inning that was ruled a single after it bounced off Trent Grisham as he ran to second base for the inning's second out. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he believed his team's at-bats Wednesday were better than they were Tuesday -- when he said he noticed his players pressing -- and pointed to the team's four walks as progress.

But the Yankees went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and are 5-for-48 (.277) with 12 strikeouts, four walks and three RBIs in such situations over their last seven games.

"We just gotta break through now like we're capable of offensively," Boone said.

Judge, the two-time AL MVP who is a heavy favorite to win a third this season, has gone 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts, two intentional walks and a home run over the past five games. He went 0-for-4 on Wednesday with two strikeouts, a 94.7 mph groundout and 107.9 mph flyout.

"Guys are pitching, they're doing their job," Judge said. "Sometimes we're faltering on doing our job. But it's tough to say. I think it just comes down to us not executing, us not doing our job. Maybe a little passive in certain situations. But all we can do is show up tomorrow ready to go."

The Angels broke through to retake the lead in the eighth inning Wednesday without a hit when, after three walks, shortstop Anthony Volpe mishandled a groundball on what should've been a routine, inning-ending double play. Volpe, a Gold Glove winner in 2023, was charged with his ninth error of the season, the second-most among shortstops across the majors.

"Right off the bat, I got to be aggressive, go get the ball, make the play," Volpe said. "As far as that, that's all it is. It's the first read off the bat."

The lack of execution trickled to the offensive side in the bottom of the frame. The Yankees appeared ready to mount a rally when Jasson Dominguez walked and Oswald Peraza was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. But they were left stranded as Grisham, who was given the green light to swing away with one strike after failing to drop down a bunt, popped out, before Judge flied out and Bellinger popped out to extinguish the threat.

"When we're not scoring a lot of runs, we got to execute on the highest level on the little things," Boone said. "And we haven't done that this week a handful of times when we had some opportunities."