Angels vs. Yankees Preview
NEW YORK (AP) – A combination of solid pitching and timely hitting helped the New York Yankees halt their losing streak.
They’ll try for a repeat performance Thursday when Bartolo Colon seeks his third straight win in a matchup with struggling Los Angeles Angels rookie Tyler Chatwood.
New York (70-45) won 9-3 on Wednesday, avoiding a fourth straight loss and its longest skid since dropping a season-high six in a row in May. The Yankees had posted a 6.49 ERA and went 4 for 29 with runners in scoring position during their three-game slide.
They went 3 for 9 in RBI situations Wednesday. Curtis Granderson had one of those three hits in the first inning with the first of his two home runs. Robinson Cano added a two-run shot and finished a single shy of the cycle.
According to MLB odds and oddsmakers have made the Yankees -190 money line favorites for Thursday’s game against the Angels. Current MLB Public Betting Information shows that 93% of more than 3,860 bets for this game have been placed on the Yankees -190.
Granderson, who now has a career-high 31 homers, had a solo shot in Tuesday’s series opener but was also picked off for the final out of a 6-4 defeat.
“The main thing is you’ve just got to forget,” Granderson said. “As soon I left (Tuesday) night, it was over with. … You got to focus on each day as it comes.”
The Yankees, who pulled within 1 1/2 games of Boston for the AL East lead, will now face Chatwood (6-8, 4.10 ERA), who has allowed 11 runs in 12 innings while dropping his last two starts. The 21-year-old right-hander gave up four two-out runs in a 5-1 defeat to Seattle on Saturday.
“He needs to tighten up, if he’s going to take that next step forward in his major league career. Just a lot of two-out hits today, and maybe on pitches where they weren’t quite where they should be,” manager Mike Scioscia told the team’s website.
While Chatwood faces the Yankees for the first time, Colon (8-6, 3.33) will make his third start against the Angels since a four-season stint in Anaheim, which included an AL Cy Young Award-winning campaign in 2005.
He enters this matchup having allowed two runs in each of his last three starts, but was pulled with the bases loaded in the fifth inning of a 3-2 win over Boston on Friday and didn’t get the decision.
Colon, who threw 94 pitches in that outing, was only slightly more efficient during a 5-3 win over Los Angeles on June 5, throwing 90 pitches over 5 1-3 innings. He gave up three runs, but earned his second win in as many matchups with the Angels (64-53), who are now 1 1/2 games behind Texas in the AL West.
Torii Hunter, who is riding an eight-game hit streak, has faced Colon more than any other current Angels player, going 12 for 47 with six doubles and two homers.
With his next triple, Granderson will become the first Yankees player to reach double figures in doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases since Snuffy Stirnweiss in 1945.
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