Giancarlo Stanton’s return didn’t fix the Yankees hitting ills.
Somehow, the lineup looked worse.
Even with the slugger playing for the first time in 2025, the Bronx Bombers bumbled their way to one of their worst losses of the season.
The lineup that failed to show up in Boston over the weekend was still missing in action back home, blowing several opportunities in this ugly 1-0 loss to the under-.500 Angels in The Bronx.
The Yankees were shut out for the second straight game, have not scored in their past 20 innings, and have lost four games in a row for the first time this year.
They went 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position in their latest loss, as Anthony Volpe grounded out with the bases loaded on the first pitch from reliever Hunter Strickland to end the maddening evening, and have scored just five runs in their past 49 innings.
Their AL East lead dropped to 2 ¹/₂ games over the second-place Rays.
“I thought enough guys up and down the lineup had some hard-hit balls, had some good contact, but when you’re not hitting the ball out of the ballpark and you’re having a hard time scoring runs, you have to take advantage of some situational things that come up,” manager Aaron Boone said after his team fell to 1-5 in extra innings. “We had some leverage there late with a runner on second, and just couldn’t push it [across].”
The Angels, who were just swept by the last-place Orioles, were hardly impressive themselves at the plate.
They were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, but Nolan Schanuel’s broken-bat double to left off Jonathan Loáisiga was enough because of the anemic opponent.
Four times, the Yankees (42-29) had a runner on second with nobody out, and couldn’t drive him home.
They failed to do little things, like moving runners over, and they couldn’t get the big hit.
It looked like the Yankees would be able to walk it off in the ninth, when Stanton laced a double down the left field line leading off the inning, his second hit in his 2025 debut.
But Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out, pinch runner Jasson Domínguez collided with third baseman Luis Rengifo fielding a Volpe grounder for the second out and Austin Wells also fanned, marking the Yankees’ 18th straight inning without scoring a run.
“We’re desperately trying to score that run, and obviously going through a tough stretch here of producing some offense,” Boone said.
The Angels didn’t give Aaron Judge a chance to beat them, intentionally walking him in his final two plate appearances.
Cody Bellinger failed to make them pay.
The evening started with the Yankees blowing a two-on, one-out situation and it ended with them leaving the bases loaded.
The one offensive bright spot was Stanton, who had two hits in four at-bats and looked like himself after missing the season’s first 70 games due to tendon injuries in each elbow.
“Great to be back. Obviously, I want to win, but it’s good to be back out there,” he said. “It was a solid first day, and I’ll take it into tomorrow.”
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Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
The offensive ineptitude wasted a brilliant outing from Clarke Schmidt.
The right-hander extended his scoreless streak to 18 ¹/₃ innings with 7 ²/₃ shutout frames.
It equaled the longest outing by a Yankees starting pitcher this season — Max Fried also went 7 ²/₃ innings back on April 20 against the Rays.
Working ahead all evening, he allowed just four hits and struck out three while throwing 101 pitches, 67 for strikes.
Schmidt’s night began with two of the first three hitters he faced, Zach Neto and Mike Trout, singling up the middle.
He set down the next 16 hitters before Schanuel’s two-out single in the sixth.
Most impressively, Schmidt didn’t walk anyone, the first time that has happened in a start this season for the right-hander.
“Obviously, it’s part of the game,” Schmidt said. “You go through streaks like this, where sometimes you’re mashing the ball and things are falling, and then sometimes things aren’t going your way.”