Angels fall to Yankees hours after learning the team is being sold

Dan Arritt, The Orange County Register on Sep 2, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM — The new ownership for the Angels won’t take the helm until next season.

Until then, there’s still plenty of housecleaning to perform.

The Angels took the field at Angel Stadium on Tuesday night, just hours after the jaw-dropping news that Arte Moreno had sold his controlling interest in the team to Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

It didn’t take long for the Angels to show the new buyer that there is plenty to be dusted off, polished and maybe even thrown out during their 7-3 loss to the New York Yankees.

Angels starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez put them in a 3-0 hole before they had a chance to step into the batter’s box, and the offense didn’t put much pressure on Yankees starter Gerrit Cole until the sixth.

When it was left to the bullpens, the Yankees (79-60) showed they were better there too, blanking the Angels (53-86) over the final three-plus innings while expanding their lead.

Bright spots are still visible on the home team, however.

Wade Meckler delivered three hits with an RBI and a run scored, Christian Moore came through with a two-run triple in the sixth that made it a one-run game and ended Cole’s night, and Zach Neto had a pair of hard hits into the outfield.

Rodriguez (4-6) bounced back from giving up two early homers to last six innings. He surrendered four runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Rodriguez struck out Ben Rice on three pitches to start the game, but then he gave up a single to right by Cody Bellinger. After getting the second out on a deep fly to center, Rodriguez couldn’t keep Spencer Jones in the ballpark, as he slugged a 3-and-1 fastball into the stands in right-center field for a 2-0 lead.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. then sliced an opposite-field home run into the front row and just inside the left-field foul pole to make it 3-0.

After singles by Rice and Bellinger to start the third, Rodriguez got Luis Garcia Jr. to hit into a 3-6-3 double play, scoring Rice for a 4-0 lead.

Neto led off the bottom of the first with a double into the left-center field gap, but he was stranded at second. He lined a single to left with one out in the third, and this time Meckler came through with a two-out RBI single through the right side to cut it to 4-1.

Meckler led off the sixth with a ground ball single up the middle. Moisés Ballesteros dropped a one-out single into center, bringing up Moore, who hit a line drive that tailed away from Jones in right and out of his reach.

The ball went into the corner, scoring both runners to cut the Yankees’ lead to 4-3.

With the tying run on third, Brent Headrick relieved Cole and the left-hander struck out pinch-hitter Jose Siri before getting Oswald Peraza to line out to right.

The Yankees re-built their cushion in the eighth, getting an RBI single from Trent Grisham and a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Paul Goldschmidt to extend the lead to 6-3.

The visitors tacked on another run in the ninth on an RBI single by Jones to make it 7-3.

Cole (8-7), a former Orange Lutheran and UCLA standout, was charged with three runs while scattering eight hits over 5⅓ innings with five strikeouts and one walk.