Oswald Peraza isn’t exactly your prototypical cleanup hitter, yet the former Yankee looked the part against his old team on Thursday, going 2-for-4 with three RBI in the Angels’ 11-4, series-splitting win at Yankee Stadium.
The third baseman, discarded by the Yankees for minor league outfielder Wilberson De Pena and international bonus pool money last summer, gave the Halos an early lead, pulling a two-run homer to left off Max Fried in the first inning. The Yankees answered back with a first-inning solo homer from Aaron Judge, his eighth of the season and fifth in his last five games, and a two-run blast from Giancarlo Stanton, his second of the season, in the third frame. However, Peraza chased Fried from the game in the sixth with an RBI double.
That tied the game at three before Fernando Cruz gave up an RBI single to Vaughn Grissom and a two-run single to Josh Lowe.
Peraza, who also walked and stole a base in the seventh, was never much of a hitter during his time with the Yankees — he had a .548 OPS over parts of four seasons with them — but his bat tormented his ex-employer this week. The 25-year-old also had a big game on Tuesday, going 3-for-3 with a solo home run in the Angels’ 7-1 win.
“He killed us,” Boone said after that game. “He was right in the middle of hurting us tonight.”
Peraza’s home run on Thursday, meanwhile, was the first one allowed by Fried this season. The left-handed ace, a bit erratic, ended his fifth start of the year with 5.1 innings pitched, three hits, five earned runs, three walks and three strikeouts over 93 pitches.
The Yankees’ bullpen wasn’t great either — a reoccurring problem for a unit that allowed 14 runs in 18 innings this series — as recent call-up Angel Chivilli followed Cruz’s subpar performance by surrendering a solo homer to Mike Trout in the seventh inning. That came after a sixth-inning solo shot from Ben Rice cut the Yankees’ deficit to two.
Then came the eighth inning, which saw Yankees longman Ryan Yarbrough surrender a grand slam to Jo Adell after balking and intentionally walking Trout.
Trout also enjoyed a sensational series, totaling five dingers in the four-game set. He homered in each game, becoming the first opposing player in baseball history to go deep on four consecutive days at Yankee Stadium, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
Trout has also homered in five straight games at Yankee Stadium dating back to last season. He and Judge (5 in Aug. 2024), a fellow three-time MVP, are the only players to do that since the current ballpark opened in 2009.
Having split their matchups with the Angels, who threw a bullpen game on Thursday, the Yankees have now failed to win three straight series. They’ll look to snap that streak against the Royals, who will begin a three-game series in the Bronx on Friday.
Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers are slated to start for the Yankees against Kansas City. The Royals will turn to Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron and Cole Ragans.