One of Those Games -- the Good Kind

Last night's finale of the Yankees' home series against the Los Angeles Angels looked like it would be one of those games. You know the kind: The kind where, at the end of the season, if we finish one game out of (take your pick: Home-field advantage, the Division title, the Playoffs entirely), we will look back and say, "This game was one of those that would have made all the difference. We should have known then that we weren't going to make it."

Instead, it turned into one of those games where, if we do win the Pennant, we will look back and say, "This game was one of those where the team's character was proven, where they figured out that they were winners, and came from behind and won it."

Jameson Taillon started the game, and the goose eggs kept coming. Through 7 innings, he had a perfect game going. But the Yankees weren't scoring, either: They had men on 1st and 2nd with no outs, and 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, in the 2nd inning; 1st and 2nd with no outs in the 3rd; a leadoff single in the 4th; a leadoff double and a 1-out walk in the 5th; and a 1-out walk in the 6th. End of 7: Angels 0, Yankees 0.

Aaron Boone sent Taillon back out for the 8th. He allowed a leadoff double, to end the perfect game and the no-hitter. He got a popup and a groundout. But then he allowed an RBI single. He got a flyout to end it, but, going to the bottom of the 8th, it was Angels 1, Yankees 0.

How can you have your pitcher to pitch 7 perfect innings, and then allow him to lose? If you want to win a championship, you can't do that. With 1 out in the bottom of the 8th, Miguel Andújar doubled. A wild pitch got him to 3rd. Isiah Kiner-Falefa drew a walk. He stole 2nd, but the Angels allowed it, rather than let Andújar have a chance to come home with the tying run. Aaron Hicks, hitting much better lately, drew a walk. Bases loaded, trying run on 3rd, potential winning run on 2nd, only 1 out.

Up came Joey Gallo, along with Hicks the target of Yankee Fans' recent wrath. He struck out, and got the hell booed out of him.

Up came Anthony Rizzo, pinch-hitting for Kyle Higashioka. He hit a grounder up the middle, and no one could reach it. Andújar and Hicks scored.

With closer Aroldis Chapman still on the Injured List, Boone sent Clay Holmes out to finish the game. He got a strikeout and a groundout. It would have been fitting for the last out to be Shohei Ohtani, the man being called the closest thing to Babe Ruth since Ruth himself, to make the last out at The House Built Across From the House That Ruth Built. But Holmes walked him.

Up next was Mike Trout, along with Ohtani the popular choices for the 2 best players in baseball. Trout didn't play like it in this series, going 0-for-10. But Holmes hit him with a pitch. Up next was Jared Walsh, and Holmes hit him, too. The bases were loaded, for Luis Rengifo.

Holmes induced a grounder to short, and IKF threw him out. Whew. Holmes was "Aroldising" out there: Coming close to messing it up, but finishing it off. Yankees 2, Angels 1. WP: Taillon (6-1). SV: Holmes (7). LP: Oliver Ortega (1-2).

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays also won, so the Yankees remain 5 1/2 games ahead of the Jays in the American League Eastern Division, and 6 ahead of the Rays, as they begin a 3-game home weekend series with the Detroit Tigers.