The Yankees got the result they needed Tuesday night in Anaheim, but Jose Caballero made sure nobody could call it a clean night.
New York beat the Angels 7-3, surviving a Gerrit Cole start that got away from him and a lineup that kept finding ways to make things harder than they had to be. Caballero, the fill-in shortstop, was at the center of the mess. He didn’t just go hitless; he turned in a night full of empty trips, missed chances, and one especially brutal sequence with the bases loaded.
Caballero finished 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, a failed challenge, and 10 runners left on base. He struck out looking early with Jazz Chisholm Jr. on second and two outs, then later whiffed with the bases loaded and nobody out right after Trent Grisham’s RBI single and Ryan McMahon’s bunt had set the Yankees up to add more. If not for Paul Goldschmidt’s sacrifice fly, that missed opportunity would have hung even heavier.
The ninth inning brought another low point. Caballero was called out on strikes again with the bases loaded and two outs. Earlier in the game, he had also kneed Wade Meckler in the head, adding one more odd note to a night that already had plenty of them.
There were a couple of defensive bright spots, at least. Caballero snagged a 107 MPH line drive from Mike Trout with two on and two out, then turned a double play on a 104 MPH hotshot. But the rest of the box score was rough enough to overshadow those plays.
The Yankees, for their part, needed the offense to keep moving because Cole wasn’t dominant. He allowed eight in under six frames and exited after Christian Moore hit a two-run triple to end his night. Even so, New York still closed it out and walked away with a 7-3 win.
That left plenty of people talking about Caballero’s night, and not in a good way. After an offseason trip to Driveline to increase his bat speed, the results Tuesday looked nothing like the payoff the Yankees would have wanted. For now, the takeaway is pretty clear: he’s not making a case to be the answer on a full-time basis.
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