The New York Yankees walked off the Los Angeles Angels on April 15th in thrilling fashion. Down by a run going into the bottom of the ninth, New York rallied to win, with Jose Caballero delivering the winning RBI.
The Yankees benefited when, with one out in the ninth, Jazz Chisholm reached base on a pop-up that the Angels’ infield failed to make a routine play on.
That was followed by an Austin Wells walk, which put the winning run on base for Caballero, who drove in the tying and winning run on a single into center field.
While Caballero was the hero, the game might not have ended in the same way for New York had Zach Neto and Oswald Peraza been able to properly communicate and catch a simple pop-up.
It was the sort of mistake you would expect to see in Little League, not in the ninth inning of an MLB game with the defense trying to protect a one-run lead. The Angels had little room for error, and they made a big one.
The moment had Yankees fans online reminiscing about another iconic walk-off win that involved a routine play being dropped.
The Iconic Yankees Walk-Off Against the Mets in 2009 Featured a Similar Blunder
On June 12th, 2009, the Yankees and Mets were tied up in a 7-7 game going into the eighth inning. When the Mets’ David Wright drove in Carlos Beltran to take the lead, the Yankees entered the ninth down 8-7.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Derek Jeter singled into center field. With two outs, the Mets gave a free pass to first baseman Mark Teixeira, bringing Alex Rodriguez to the plate. Down to their last out, Rodriguez was the Yankees’ last hope.
Rodriguez hit a pop-up into shallow right field, and the Mets’ second baseman, Luis Castillo, called off right fielder Ryan Church to make the routine play. Unfortunately for the Mets, Castillo dropped the ball, allowing Jeter and Teixeira to score the tying and winning runs.
One X user, Yankees content creator That’s Baseball, Suzyn, pointed out that the last time the Yankees had a walk-off hit that was not a home run, and did not break a tie, was the iconic win over the Mets in 2009.
The Yankees-Angels Series Has Been Full of Great Moments
Yesterday’s walk-off winner was just one of many iconic moments from this week’s Yankees-Angels series in New York.
In Game 1, on Monday, Mike Trout and Aaron Judge went head-to-head. Both former MVPs hit two home runs, and the Angels led 10-8 going into the ninth inning. Trent Grisham, who had already homered as a pinch-hitter for Randal Grichuk, tied the game in the ninth inning with his second home run of the day, a two-run blast. Later in the ninth, Jose Caballero scored the winning run, scoring from third base on a wild pitch.
In Game 2, the Angels took down New York 7-1, with Mike Trout, Jo Adell, and Jorge Soler crushing back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first inning.
In Game 3, New York walked the Angels off for a second time, despite Trout hitting his fourth home run of the series earlier in the game.
And in Game 4, on Thursday, Los Angeles won 11-4 in another slugfest. Trout and Judge each homered again, as did Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice. But it was Jo Adell’s grand slam home run in the eighth inning that locked up the win for the Angels.
New York Yankees’ Walk-Off Win Over Angels Reminds Fans of Iconic Walk-Off from 2009