ANAHEIM — Aaron Boone listed a number of causes for pitching to the red-hot Shohei Ohtani in the course of the seventh inning of the Yankees’ Monday evening loss to the Angels. The one which raised probably the most eyebrows was Mickey Moniak.
“The guy hitting behind him is really good, too,” Boone mentioned of Moniak earlier than Tuesday’s contest whereas reflecting on Ohtani’s seventh-inning at-bat, which resulted in a game-tying homer. “That guy’s in the middle of a really kind of burst on the scene year where the guy’s hitting .330 and well over a .900 OPS.”
While Moniak, the primary total choose in 2016, is having fun with a breakout marketing campaign, the point out of his identify drew criticism as a result of he’s hardly a longtime pressure like Ohtani. A profession .239 hitter on his second crew, this season has been Moniak’s first prolonged look within the majors, and his marketing campaign hasn’t even reached 50 video games but.
Boone, additionally citing the scenario, selected to problem the superior participant, and it price them.
On Tuesday, nonetheless, Moniak outdid Ohtani and validated Boone’s reward, crushing the evening’s greatest blast in a 5-1 Angels win. His two-run homer off Domingo German gave the Halos a first-inning lead that they by no means relinquished, and his fifth-inning single, which deflected off DJ LeMahieu’s glove, offered a welcomed insurance coverage run.
Moniak is now hitting .336 with a 1.014 OPS.
While Moniak had the higher evening, Ohtani didn’t precisely cool off on the plate. He hit an RBI triple down the correct area line within the fifth, which made it a 4-1 ballgame.
The Angels scored their third run on a wild pitch from German, who allowed 5 earned over six frames regardless of hanging out 9. He additionally allowed 4 hits and three walks over 106 pitches.
Meanwhile, Angels starter Patrick Sandoval saved the Yankees quiet for the second evening in row by permitting simply two hits and one earned run over 7.1 innings. The southpaw struck out seven whereas strolling three over 99 pitches.
The Yankees’ solely run got here on a Gleyber Torres longball within the third.
“Mood’s down for sure,” mentioned Anthony Rizzo, whose homerless struggles continued Tuesday. “We definitely all expect better of ourselves individually and as a team. It’s OK to be down right now. It’s a close group. This is a low point and we’ve been battling. But this is part of it. It’s what we keep telling each other. This is part of the journey and this is the story of the 2023 season and this is what we’re dealt with. These are the cards in front of us and we’ve just got to keep playing.”
The Angels started the sport with the seventh-worst rotation ERA within the majors, however the Yankees solely managed three runs off Sandoval and Griffin Canning within the first two video games of the collection. The Bombers have scuffled in opposition to mediocre and dangerous groups and starting pitchers currently, which has prompted Boone to repeat phrases alongside the strains of, “We gotta do better.”
But these reiterations haven’t modified something in regards to the last-place Yankees’ offense. So far, neither has new hitting coach Sean Casey. At some level, does Boone simply say that is who the Yankees are?
“No, no, no. Like there’s no quit in it. There’s no — we gotta fight,” the supervisor mentioned. “We got really good players. And a lot of guys that are going through a tough, tough stretch. For some, probably as tough a stretch as they’ve been in their career. So you don’t take your ball and go home. You stick your nose in there and you grind it out and you compete your a— off. We’re doing that. They’re doing that. They’re not leaving any stone unturned. It’s not from a lack of work and focus and conversations. So with all due respect, we’re going to keep competing, and that’s gonna get to be a boring answer for you guys until we break through, but that’s the only thing we can do and the only thing we know how to do. And it’s not accepting anything, not when we have the group that we know we’re capable of. But we got to get it out. We got to find it. We gotta find it.”
Boone, after a number of lengthy solutions to questions in regards to the Yankees’ underachievement, was then requested how pissed he’s. He admitted that there are moments “where you get frustrated and upset,” however he doesn’t suppose that fixating on these feelings will assist.
“That’ll wear you down,” Boone mentioned. “You start getting overly emotional, high, low, mad. Look, we’re human. There’s gonna be things in the moment that frustrate you. Our job is to work and figure it out.”
While Boone has maintained religion within the Yankees’ core, the likes of Rizzo, LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and the now-injured Josh Donaldson have endured extended struggles on the plate with Aaron Judge on the injured listing.
Boone has expressed frustration with that narrative at instances, however he acknowledged that “it’s fair” on Tuesday.
“That’s what the story is,” Boone mentioned when requested about Judge’s absence. “So we can correct it. We got the players to do it. We have players with track records to do it. I understand that’s the story. And it’s fair for this year. We’ve been through stretches in 2019 where we were down Judge and [Stanton] and kept on banging. And those guys in that clubhouse are very capable. It’s coincided with obviously the game’s best player out. So that’s the story. But we’re capable. Still. We gotta find it. I mean, simple as that. And I know that’s a broken record. I know that’s a boring answer. We gotta find it. And we’ve got the guys capable of doing it. And it’s on all of us. On me, on the coaches, on staff, on players to, again, strike that balance between — because the care factor is so much, and the game’s so damn hard and hitting is so hard — you got to strike that balance between coming in focused, work, preparation. Now 7 o’clock hits — 6:38 tonight — man, let’s go play. Go play the game like a kid. And we gotta find that balance.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com