The Angels got the memo that Monday night’s slugfest was carrying over into Tuesday.
The Yankees, evidently, did not.
The bell rang for Round 2 to begin and only the Angels came out punching, delivering a trio of right hooks to Ryan Weathers in the form of back-to-back-to-back home runs in the top of the first inning and then cruising from there as the Yankees fell 7-1 on a warm night in The Bronx.
Angels lefty Reid Detmers silenced the Yankees lineup that broke out for an 11-10 win Monday, putting it right back in the rut it found itself in entering the series opener.
Facing a lineup that did not include Ben Rice, the major league leader in OPS who sat in favor of the right-handed hitting Paul Goldschmidt, Detmers allowed just four hits and one run across seven-plus innings, not letting a runner touch second base until the eighth inning.
Meanwhile, over half of the Angels lineup homered — all solo shots, but damaging nonetheless as Weathers surrendered four and reliever Yerry De los Santos gave up another late. The five homers matched the number that the Yankees pitching staff had given up in their first 16 games combined.
The poor pitching and poorer hitting handed the Yankees (9-8) a seventh loss in their last nine games as they will try again Wednesday to shake this early-season funk for good.
Weathers came into the night having not allowed a home run through his first three starts and 16 innings this season. The left-hander had also not received a single run of support from his offense while he was still in any of those games.
Only one of those things changed Tuesday, though, on a strange night in which the left-hander struck out 10 across five-plus innings but had four pitches end up in the seats.
In a span of five pitches in the top of the first, Weathers gave up 1,276 feet worth of homers to Mike Trout, Jo Adell and Jorge Soler. They all came on low fastballs — Adell’s was actually below the zone — and all came off the bat loudly as the Angels (9-9) stormed out to a quick 3-0 lead.
Weathers went on to retire 10 of the next 11 batters before former Yankee Oswald Peraza — as part of a 3-for-3 night in which he added a 12-pitch walk — crushed another solo shot in the fourth inning to make it 4-0.
After Weathers struck out the side in the fifth inning, he issued a leadoff walk in the sixth that ended his night. Paul Blackburn then entered and evoked some boo birds as he allowed four straight batters to reach base — on three singles and a walk — as the Angels padded their lead to 6-0.
Yoán Moncada later took De los Santos deep to lead off the eighth inning, stretching the lead to 7-0 before the Yankees finally mustered a run in the bottom half.
Randal Grichuk broke his 0-for-15 to start the season by roping a double into the gap, and after Austin Wells singled, Rice pinch hit for Ryan McMahon and delivered a sacrifice fly to snap the shutout.
