Yankees’ Gleyber Torres’ heroics overshadow Angels’ Shohei Ohtani in win | Rapid reaction

Gleyber Torres drives in both of the Yankees’ runs — and homers, again — in a 2-1 win over the Angels at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani, everyone’s favorite for American League Rookie of the Year, watched from the dugout as Yankee Stadium erupted.

He might have some competition, after all.

Gleyber Torres‘ home run in the seventh inning put his emergence into the race in bold letters and it gave the Yankees their final lead in a 2-1 victory on Friday night.

Torres crushed reliever Jim Johnson’s 95-mph fastball nearly into the bleachers in right-center field to break a 1-all tie that had lasted since the fifth inning.

Torres also drove in the Yankees’ other run with a infield single in the second inning. 

His production backed righty Luis Severino, who outdueled lefty Andrew Heaney. Severino gave up just a run in six innings though he walked four. Severino bolstered his Cy Young case, improving to 8-1 with a 2.28 ERA.

Aroldis Chapman worked a four-out save for his 10th of the year.

WHAT IT MEANS

The Yankees broke a two-game losing streak. They have won four of their last seven games and will play another 13 games in 12 days. They started the day a . game behind the Red Sox in the AL East.

The Yankees improved to 2-5 in games they scored two or fewer runs.

At 21 years and 163 days, Torres became the youngest player in AL history to homer in four straight games. The three players younger than Torres to homer in four consecutive games? Miguel Cabrera (2004), Albert Pujols (2001) and Andruw Jones (1998)

He’s got nine bombs on the year and six in his last six games.

Torres, who entered the night hitting .323 with a team-high .998 OPS, was Baseball America’s sixth-ranked prospect going into the season. He hit just seven home runs in 55 games at Triple-A in 2017 — a season that was cut short due to Tommy John surgery on his left elbow.

OHTANI

Ohtani made Yankees fans’ hearts jump in the eighth. He rocked Chapman’s 100-mph fastball with a runner on second base into the seats in left field. But it was just foul and Chapman got Ohtani to ground out to short to end the frame.

In his Yankee Stadium debut, Ohtani finished 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Luis Severino struck him out looking with a 98 mph fastball in the second inning.

Ohtani got booed every time he walked to the plate. The Yankees wanted badly to sign Ohtani, also an impact starting pitcher whose fastball touches 100 mph, in the offseason. But he picked the Angels after telling teams he didn’t want to play in a big market and that he didn’t want to be on the East Coast.

JUDGE’S ARM

Judge probably doesn’t even let sentences run on him.

With hardly a hint of strain on his face, the 26-year-old nabbed two Angels trying to get extra bases on him.

To end the third, Judge threw Kole Calhoun out at the plate with a laser beam that MLB’s Statcast tracked at 100.5 mph. The throw was just in time and catcher Gary Sanchez tagged Calhoun’s shin before his foot hit the plate. 

Three innings later, Martin Maldonado tried for a double when his liner bounced barely inside foul territory deep into the corner. Judge played the ball off the wall, turned and fired to second base. Maldonado was out by a mile.

After embarrassing Maldonado, “MVP” chants filled the stadium.

NEXT

Saturday: Yankees righty Sonny Gray (3-3, 5.48 ERA) vs. TBA Angels starter, 7:15 p.m. at Yankee Stadium.

Sunday: Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka (5-2, 4.95 ERA) vs. Angels righty Garrett Richards (4-3, 3.31 ERA), 1:15 p.m. at Yankee Stadium.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.