Field Level Media
May 25, 2018
Rookie Gleyber Torres homered for the fourth straight game Friday night when he hit a tiebreaking solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, lifting the New York Yankees to a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium.
Torres electrified a sellout crowd when he lifted a 3-1 fastball by Jim Johnson (2-2) into the right-center field seats. It was his fifth homer in six games and ninth since making his major league debut April 22 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
At 21 years, 163 days, Torres became the youngest player in American League history to homer in four straight games and fourth youngest in the majors to do so, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The youngest player in the majors to accomplish the feat is Miguel Cabrera, who was 20 years, 362 days when he did it for the then-Florida Marlins in 2004.
Torres drove in both runs for the Yankees, who won for the 23rd time in 29 games and for the 14th time in their last 16 home games.
Aaron Judge helped the Yankees win with his arm by getting two outfield assists from right field. He became the first Yankee right fielder to get two assists in a game since Nick Swisher on June 28, 2011, against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Judge threw out Kole Calhoun trying to score from second on a single by Justin Upton for the final out of the third and then nailed Martin Maldonado trying to stretch a single to a double for the second out of the seventh.
Mike Trout homered for the Angels, who fell to 16-6 on the road.
Shohei Ohtani, who spurned the Yankees to sign with the Angels in the offseason, heard boos before each plate appearance and went 0-for-3, though he narrowly missed hitting a go-ahead two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman in the eighth.
New York's Luis Severino labored at times but held the Angels to one run on four hits in six innings. He struck out five and tied a career high by issuing four walks for the fourth time in his career.
Aided by Judge's second outfield assist, Chad Green (3-0) pitched a scoreless seventh. David Robertson recorded the first two outs of the eighth, and Chapman recorded the final four outs for his 10th save.
Los Angeles starter Andrew Heaney allowed one run on four hits in 6 1/3 innings.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the second when Torres hit an infield single to third baseman Zack Cozart, whose throw bounced in front of Albert Pujols at first. New York missed a chance for more when Pujols threw out Aaron Hicks trying to score to end the inning.
The Angels tied the game when Trout pulled Severino's 0-1 fastball into the second deck in right field with two outs in the fifth.
--Field Level Media