Question for the reader: Do you enjoy pure pitchers’ duels?

Some do, some don’t. While most can’t deny that the most exciting games consist of a ton of hits and runs, a lot would argue that two dominant starters taking turns blanking their opponents is a treat to watch as well. When it’s not the pure domination of, say, a Kershaw vs. Scherzer, it can get kind of boring.

We mostly got the latter today. While Clarke Schmidt and Yusei Kikuchi are two good starting pitchers, neither would describe them as dominant. Really, the story of this one was missed opportunities for both teams with frustrating at-bats all around. The Yankees stranded plenty of runners in scoring position, while the Angels couldn’t take advantage of a Yankee team with almost every high-leverage reliever unavailable.

In the end, the only run of the game was scored at the top of the first inning, as the Yankees rode a great start by Schmidt and shutdown relief from the second-tier of relievers to a 1-0 victory, their fifth shutout victory of the season and their third victory by the lowest score possible

The Yankees went after Kikuchi right away in this one. A leadoff double by Paul Goldschmidt immediately put a runner in scoring position before an intentional walk to Aaron Judge and an unintentional walk to Cody Bellinger loaded the bases with one out. For the MLB-leading 14th time, Anthony Volpe came up with the bases loaded and did his job, skying a fly ball to center field to make it 1-0 Yankees on a sacrifice fly.

After an infield single by Jasson Domínguez reloaded the bases, DJ LeMahieu stranded them with a fly out.

Schmidt got into some early trouble himself. Although a leadoff single by Zach Neto was quickly erased by a Nolan Schanuel GIDP, he surrendered a double to Yoán Moncada (who had a generally successful audition as a deadline target, though he did leave with knee soreness) before striking out Taylor Ward to end the inning.

In the second, the Yankees put more traffic on the bases. Despite an Oswald Peraza double-play ball erasing a leadoff single, the bases ended up loaded again after a Goldschmidt walk, Trent Grisham double, and… another intentional walk to Judge? Two in two innings? Really, Ron? Unfortunately, Bellinger popped out to vindicate the veteran manager, who was flat-out giddy in the dugout.

Not to be outdone, the Halos stranded first and second with nobody out in the bottom half. Schmidt got a pair of strikeouts and a Luis Rengifo groundout to wiggle out of another jam.

Another RISP failure in the third saw Domínguez stranded on second base with one out after a walk and SB, while Schmidt settled in. In fact, both pitchers settled in pretty well. After walking Domínguez, Kikuchi finished his outing by retiring eight in a row. Schmidt, meanwhile, retired 15 of 16 to end his outing after getting into a second-inning jam. Kikuchi, despite five walks and a mind-boggling eight baserunners allowed through two, tossed five innings of one-run ball.

Schmidt turned in probably his best start of the season, tossing six shutout frames against a suddenly cold Angels lineup. After his pitch count ran high early, he settled down to put together a quality start. His velo was up, his spin was up, and his cutter continued to improve from its early-season woes (nine whiffs, 41 CSW%). It was a good bounce-back to that shaky outing in the Mile High City.

The Yankees’ offense was flummoxed after the first two innings. After Kikuchi departed, they were mowed down by Robert Stephenson and Ryan Zeferjahn, managing only a broken-bat single by Grisham. On most days, you’d be comfortable with a late-inning lead with the recent dominance of the team’s high-leverage arms, but the recent usage of the big boys has rendered the ’pen shorthanded.

Ian Hamilton was first up in the seventh and, despite a pitch chart that looks like this, worked a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. I suppose you don’t have to throw strikes if they swing at balls.

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Volpe doubled off of Reid Detmers with one out in the eighth but the struggles with RISP continued, as Domínguez got too aggressive and chased strike three while LeMahieu just… stared at two in a row down Broadway to go down looking to end the inning. He’s now down to a dreadful 44 wRC+ through his first 41 plate appearances of 2025.

Hamilton came back out and gave up a bloop single to Chris Taylor, who got into scoring position on a sac bunt by Rengifo. After a big pop-out of Neto, Aaron Boone went to Tim Hill to face the lefty Schanuel, who grounded out on the first pitch he saw to end the inning.

Despite a single by Goldschmidt, the struggles continued for the Yankees offense in the ninth, going down easy against Brock Burke. They gave a shorthanded pitching staff one run of support and relied on Mark Leiter Jr, who’s probably fifth in the closing line of trust when Cruz gets back, to lock it down.

Leiter faced a pinch-hitter, Jo Adell, and got a first-pitch lineout. He mowed down Ward on three pitches for the second out, but walked Soler as the tying run with two away. The red-hot Logan O’Hoppe, looking to make up for his ghastly 3-0 swing decision last night, stepped in and got the count to 2-2 before an impeccable frame job by catcher J.C. Escarra fooled home-plate umpire Ben May, who rung up O’Hoppe to end the game on a curveball that wasn’t even close.

Leiter secured the save, continued his sneakily strong campaign, and the Yankees swept their way out of Anaheim for their ninth win in their last ten ballgames. It’s their fourth sweep of the season and their first sweep in Angel Stadium since April 2018.

It’s the Yankees’ third 1-0 win of the season after just 55 games. They had three in the previous three seasons combined. Last time they had three in one season? 2021. Gulp.

After a needed offday Thursday, the Yankees will begin the 2024 World Series rematch against the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine on Friday night at 10:10 PM. It’ll be Max Fried facing off against Tony Gonsolin on Apple TV+.

Box Score