Corey Kluber unravels in fourth inning; Yanks rally but lose to Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Corey Kluber’s return to the mound couldn’t have gone any better until it suddenly couldn’t end soon enough.

Kluber, who threw a no-hitter May 19 against the Rangers but left his next start with a right shoulder strain that kept him off a major-league mound for more than three months, completely dominated the Angels into the fourth inning Monday night. Then his outing disintegrated in a hailstorm of sharp singles and a grand slam by Jack Mayfield.

Though the Yankees brought their "A" game offensively, including an RBI single by Giancarlo Stanton that tied it at 5 and a 457-foot two-run homer by Stanton that tied it at 7, it wasn’t quite enough in an 8-7 loss to the Angels on Monday night at Angels Stadium.

After winning 13 straight, the Yankees (76-55) have lost three in a row by a total of four runs. They fell seven games behind the AL East-leading Rays but stayed two games ahead of the Red Sox, who lost to the Rays on Monday, for the top wild-card spot.

"Every day’s big," Aaron Boone said. "Whether we’re in the midst of 10 in a row . . . now we’ve dropped three in a row. We give Ja-mo [Jameson Taillon] the ball tomorrow and we’ll come out and [try to] go get one."

No. 8 hitter Mayfield and No. 9 hitter Juan Lagares went 4-for-8 with six RBIs for the Angels, with Lagares’ two-out RBI single off Clay Holmes snapping a 7-7 tie in the eighth. Wandy Peralta allowed a leadoff single by Brandon Marsh in the inning and was replaced by Holmes, who retired two straight before allowing Lagares' line-drive single to left on a high, hanging breaking ball.

Raisel Iglesias, the Angels’ seventh pitcher, struck out two, including Aaron Judge to end it, in a perfect ninth for his 28th save.

"I thought we swung it really well," said DJ LeMahieu, who went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI single. "Came back from a couple of deficits and had a chance to win."

Stanton homered for the fifth time in seven games and the seventh time in 12, with his blast into the rockpile in left-center giving him 25 overall.

Stanton, Judge and DJ LeMahieu had RBI singles in a three-run fifth that erased the 5-2 lead the Angels took against Kluber.

The night also included the 42nd homer of the season for Shohei Ohtani, a 431-foot blast to rightfield in the fifth off former Angel Andrew Heaney, who has allowed 10 home runs in 28 innings as a Yankee and 26 in 122 innings overall. Ohtani struck out looking in his other three at-bats, twice against Kluber.

After not allowing a hit and striking out six in his first 3 1/3 innings, Kluber allowed three straight singles in the fourth, the last one by Jo Adell, which cut the Yankees’ lead to 2-1.

Kluber walked Max Stassi to load the bases with two outs, then saw Mayfield send a first-pitch breaking ball deep to left for a grand slam that made it 5-2. It marked the second career grand slam surrendered by Kluber, the other by Kansas City's Alex Gordon in 2013 when Kluber was with Cleveland.

"The final line doesn’t look very good, but breaking it down, there was a lot of good to take out of tonight," said Kluber, who was 4-3 with a 3.04 ERA in 10 starts before getting hurt. "One pitch [to Mayfield] I wish I could have back."

No Ohtani Tuesday (on the mound). Ohtani will not start Tuesday night’s game as scheduled, Angels manager Joe Maddon said before the game. He still has a sore right wrist after being hit by a pitch Saturday against the Padres.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.