Add The New York Post on Google ANAHEIM, Calif. — As ugly as Monday night was for the Yankees, Tuesday was much cleaner, if still not perfect.
There was Spencer Jones, who went deep for the second time in as many nights, reached base four times and drove in three runs to keep showing he deserves at-bats even once the Yankees are whole.
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There was Jazz Chisholm Jr., who went back-to-back with Jones in the first inning on the way to a three-hit night, offering more hope his recent hot streak is a sign of things to come down the stretch.
And there was Gerrit Cole, pitching in his backyard and continuing a strong stretch in which he’s looked more and more like himself before his bullpen picked him up.
The Yankees wasted some chances to fully blow the game open and make things even more comfortable late, but they did enough to get back on track with a 7-3 win over the lowly but newly sold Angels at Angel Stadium.
Bouncing back from an error-filled 10-1 letdown in Monday’s series opener, the Yankees (79-60) kicked off the final month of the regular season by staying 4 ¹/₂ games back of the Rays for the division with 23 games left to play, while moving back to four games ahead of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card.
Cole’s night ended on a sour note, when he gave up a two-run triple to Christian Moore with one out in the sixth inning that pulled the Angels within 4-3.
But Brent Headrick came on to strand the tying run at third.
The Yankees then created some breathing room late — a rally started by Jones’ second walk of the night and Chisholm’s third hit — as the struggling Trent Grisham (2-for-42) fouled off a pair of bunt attempts before roping a single for the 5-3 lead off lefty reliever Samy Natera Jr.
After Paul Goldschmidt added a pinch-hit sacrifice fly, Jones made it 7-3 in the ninth inning with a left-on-left single to plate Cody Bellinger, who recorded three of the Yankees’ 14 hits.
The late runs allowed Aaron Boone to use new reliever John Schreiber for the bottom of the ninth, and the sidearmer delivered a 1-2-3 frame to close it out.
Cole entered the night having with a 2.41 ERA in six career starts at Angel Stadium, where he grew up going to games near his home in Newport Beach. But when the Yankees made their annual trip here last season, in late May, Cole was still not yet throwing as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.
Now, he is 18 starts back from the major elbow surgery with a 3.29 ERA, looking primed for the stretch run.
“I’m very excited for him and Carlos [Rodón] and really the pitching staff for the Yankees, because these guys are going into the primes of their season in the playoffs,” superagent Scott Boras, who counts Cole and Rodón among his many clients, said before the game from his field-level suite. “Normally you’ve spent 190 innings, 180, and you got to get through the playoffs. But they have three starters [Cole, Rodón and Max Fried] that are very, very fresh — and veteran starters, on top of it. So it gives them an advantage few teams have.”
On Tuesday, Cole got a 3-0 lead before he took the mound.
Jones got it started by crushing another sky-high, two-run home run in the top of the first inning against right-hander Grayson Rodriguez.
The 398-foot blast marked Jones’ ninth home run of the season — four of which have come in his past 15 games.
Chisholm followed by getting a 98 mph fastball just outside the zone and going the other way with it, able to keep it just fair down the left field line and tucking it inside the foul pole for the solo shot.
The second baseman has 19 home runs and 40 steals on the year — far from his lofty goal of 50-50 entering the season, but he has looked more like himself of late.
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Entering Tuesday, Chisholm had hit .378 with a 1.035 OPS over his past 13 games, with the Yankees hoping that his disappointing season can still end with him playing his best when it matters most.
