Trumbo, Angels walk off in a see-saw game

Memorial Day clearly meant “offense” to the Yankees and Angels, as they combined for 17 runs, 25 hits, and four errors in a back-and-forth game that ended on a walk-off homer from Anaheim’s Mark Trumbo as the ninth inning started.

The game started off crazily enough, with the Yankees plating three against the Angels and Jeff Weaver leaving the game with an injury before the Angels even had a chance to bat, thanks to an error by Erick Aybar, a Raul Ibanez sac-fly, and another error by reliever Bobby Cassevah. Phil Hughes, though, was kindly enough to give runs right back to the Angels, as he allowed four in the first on a Kendrys Morales single (1), a Mark Trumbo ground-rule double (1), and (of course) a Howie Kendrick single (2). Curtis Granderson, however, didn’t allow the tie to last for long. As the second batter of the second inning, he homered to right off of Cassevah and tied the game. No one scored again until the third…

…when Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher collided in right field on a ball hit by Mark Trumbo that ended up going for a triple. The next batter (again, of course) was Kendrick and he brought Trumbo home with a sac-fly, and the Angels re-took the lead at 5-4. A one-out error in the top of the fourth by Albert Pujols put Derek Jeter on first, but he would be stranded on second base after Hisanori Takahashi came into the game. Though Alex Rodriguez singled, Takahashi struck out the batter before him (Granderson) and the batter after him (Robinson Cano) and the Yanks were turned away in the fourth. In their next two at-bats, the teams traded homers with Mike Trout hitting his fifth in the bottom of the fourth and Mark Teixeria staying hot by belting his ninth in the top of fifth

In the bottom of the sixth, the Angels got three hits (two of the infield variety) and one walk. The only non-infield hit of the inning was a double by Kendrys Morales that plated Peter Bourjous to make it 8-5Angels. The Yankees were able to answer in the top of the seventh inning as Robinson Cano hit his 18th double to lead off the inning. Tex followed with a walk, and Jason Isringhausen entered the game. He promptly gave up a single to Raul Ibanez to load the bases. Isringhausen did record his first out of the game on Nick Swisher, but unfortunately for the pitcher, it was a sacrifice fly and the Yankees pulled to within two. After an Eric Chavez grounder moved the runners over, Russell Martin worked a full count against Izzy before slapping a double and tying the game at 8.

The Yankees did have a scoring chance in the top of the ninth, having loaded the bases, albeit with two outs. Derek Jeter, however, grounded out to end the inning and the Angels won the game on the aforementioned Trumbo homer.

If we’re going for silver linings, hooray offense. Otherwise, this was a game to forget.

NOTES:

Phil Hughes gave up a career high 11 hits.

Despite scoring 17 combined runs, the teams also combined to leave 19 (11 NYY, 8 LA) runners on base. In that vein, every Yankee but Mark Teixeira left at least two runners on base.

Every starter for both teams, except Nick Swisher, reached base.

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