ANAHEIM, Calif. — Before the Yankees played a single inning at Angel Stadium this week, Aaron Boone was already being asked about the big showdown looming this weekend up I-5.
“I’m looking out at the Angels right now, so that’s where my mind’s at,” Boone said Monday afternoon in the visiting dugout.
With the Angels now swept out of the way, the attention can fully turn to the World Series rematch.
The Yankees took care of business here on Wednesday, finishing off a three-game sweep of the Angels on the back of another strong starting pitching performance, this one from Clarke Schmidt in a 1-0 win at Angel Stadium.
Schmidt threw six shutout innings in which he scattered just four hits and one walk while striking out five, lifting the Yankees (35-20) to their fifth straight win heading into a weekend series with the Dodgers that begins on Friday.
“Obviously we’re playing really good baseball right now and the energy in the clubhouse is great,” Schmidt said in a clubhouse that was more boisterous than usual after a win.
In relief of Schmidt, Ian Hamilton (1 ²/₃ innings) and Tim Hill bridged the gap to the ninth for Mark Leiter Jr. — on a night when Luke Weaver and Devin Williams were both unavailable — who delivered his second save of the season with a pair of strikeouts.
Catcher J.C. Escarra, who had gotten beaten up by foul tips behind the plate all night, helped frame the final pitch — which he later said was “definitely a ball — for a called third strike to end it.
“A 1-0 game is always intense,” Leiter said. “Everybody else did their job, it’s my turn to come in and do my job. Get a little more emotion coming out of that last out, trying to hold it together throughout the game and not riding the emotion of the game. But definitely feels good once you get that last out.”
Between Schmidt, Carlos Rodón and Ryan Yarbrough, Yankees starters in this series combined to pitch 19 innings in which they allowed just one run on 11 hits and two walks with 21 strikeouts.
Part of that might be attributed to the state of the Mike Trout-less Angels (25-30), though they had won seven straight — including a sweep of the Dodgers — shortly before this series.
But it is also more encouraging results for the Yankees rotation, which has now posted an MLB-best 2.54 ERA over its last 40 starts.
They have allowed one or zero earned runs in 22 of those starts, including nine of their last 13.
“You’re only as good as your starting pitching generally and they’ve been great,” Leiter said. “They’ve been carrying us a lot and giving us a chance to win every night and that’s all you can ask.”
Schmidt was coming off an ineffective start against the Rockies his last time out on Friday, in which he was somewhat handcuffed by the high altitude altering his pitches.
But for the most part he was sharper on Wednesday, retiring 15 of the final 16 batters he faced.
The Angels took the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands in each of his first two plate appearances with intentional walks, one of which led to the Yankees’ only run of the night.
The first came after Paul Goldschmidt led off the game with a hustle double and Trent Grisham struck out, leaving first base open with one out. After Angels manager Ron Washington flashed four fingers to put
Judge on, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi followed by walking Cody Bellinger on five pitches to load the bases for Anthony Volpe, who delivered a sacrifice fly for the 1-0 lead.
Thanks to the Yankees’ pitching staff, it proved to be all they would need to head to Los Angeles on a high.
“Anytime you get a sweep, that’s not easy to do in this league,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So there’s that excitement, knowing we’re going into an off day, we’re not going far. You kind of look to those off days and when you get a sweep into an off day and you do it on a night when you’re staying away from a few guys [in the bullpen] — some other guys really stepped up in some big roles. Pretty cool and makes for a good day [Thursday].”
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