Sweep! Five-run fifth helps Yankees to 6-3 win over Angels

Source: FanGraphsWinning is so much better than losing, isn’t it? A five-run fifth inning led to a 6-3 win in Thursday night’s series finale against the Angels. The Yankees scored 29 runs in the four games, including at least five runs in each game. We’ve been waiting too long to see an offensive stretch like that. There’s a lot going on with the draft and stuff tonight, so I’m going to take the easy way out with a bullet point recap:

• Five in the Fifth: The first four innings of this was one of those annoying games where a generally crummy pitcher, in this case Jhoulys Chacin, shut the offense down. Then the fifth inning happened. Didi Gregorius started the rally with a leadoff walk, and with one out, four straight Yankees reached base: Chris Parmelee (RBI single), Jacoby Ellsbury (single), Brett Gardner (walk), Carlos Beltran (two-run double). An Alex Rodriguez sac fly scored the fourth run of the inning, then Brian McCann doubled in the fifth. Hooray runs, hooray Yankees.
• Solid Nova: Ivan Nova’s pitching line looked a lot better before he allowed a two-run homer to the final batter he faced, Jefry Marte. That turned 6.1 innings and one run into 6.1 innings and three runs. Blah. Nova was very good though, striking out five and getting six ground ball outs. This is just more of the same from Ivan. He’s been pretty awesome since joining the rotation.
• Shutdown Bullpen: After a night off, the big three relievers all went to work to nail down this win. Dellin Betances retired the two batters he faced, Andrew Miller pitched around a leadoff single in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman pitched around a two-double in the ninth. Those three hit a bit of a rough patch last week. Good to see them getting back to dominating.
• Leftovers: Gardner continued his recent hot streak with three hits and a walk. He’s been on fire of late … every player in the starting lineup had at least one hit except Gregorius, who drew that leadoff walk in the fifth. Headley had two knocks … the Yankees had 18 (!) at-bats with runners in scoring position. It didn’t seem like that many, did it? They went 5-for-18 (.278) in those spots … Chris Parmelee left the game with a hamstring injury and is heading for an MRI.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Also check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. The Tigers are coming to the Bronx for a three-game series next. CC Sabathia and Mike Pelfrey are Friday’s scheduled starters.

Minor League Update: No time for a full DotF post tonight, folks. Here are the box scores and here’s the short version: Brady Lail allowed three runs in six innings, Dustin Fowler stayed hot with a homer, Miguel Andujar and Thairo Estrada went deep as well, Austin Aune had four hits, Ian Clarkin struck out nine in seven innings, and Leonardo Molina doubled and tripled.