ANAHEIM, Calif. — Before the Yankees got to play at Angel Stadium, questions were already swirling around Aaron Boone about the highly anticipated weekend series up I-5.
“I’m looking out at the Angels right now, so that’s where my mind’s at,” Boone said Monday afternoon in the visiting dugout.
With the Angels now swept out of the way, the attention can fully turn to the World Series rematch.
The Yankees wrapped up their job on Wednesday, securing a three-game sweep of the Angels thanks to a stellar performance on the mound by Clarke Schmidt, culminating in a 1-0 victory at Angel Stadium.
Schmidt delivered six shutout innings, giving up just four hits and one walk while striking out five. This effort propelled the Yankees (35-20) to their fifth consecutive win as they prepared for the upcoming weekend series with the Dodgers starting Friday.
In relief of Schmidt, Ian Hamilton (1 ²/₃ innings) and Tim Hill bridged the gap to the ninth for Mark Leiter Jr. — on a night when Luke Weaver and Devin Williams both appeared to be unavailable — who delivered his second save of the season with a pair of strikeouts.
Between Schmidt, Carlos Rodón and Ryan Yarbrough, Yankees starters in this series combined to pitch 19 innings in which they allowed just one run on 11 hits and two walks with 21 strikeouts.
Part of that might be attributed to the state of the Mike Trout-less Angels (25-30), though they had won seven straight — including a sweep of the Dodgers — shortly before this series.
But it is also more encouraging results for the Yankees rotation, which has now posted an MLB-best 2.54 ERA over its last 40 starts.
They have allowed one or zero earned runs in 22 of those starts, including nine of their last 13.
Schmidt was coming off an ineffective start against the Rockies his last time out on Friday, in which he was somewhat handcuffed by the high altitude altering his pitches.
But for the most part he was sharper on Wednesday, retiring 15 of the final 16 batters he faced.
The Angels took the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands in each of his first two plate appearances, one of which led to the Yankees’ only run of the night.
The first came after Paul Goldschmidt led off the game with a hustle double and Trent Grisham struck out, leaving first base open with one out.
Left-hander Yusei Kikuchi followed by walking Cody Bellinger on five pitches to load the bases for Anthony Volpe, who delivered a sacrifice fly for the 1-0 lead.
The Yankees later reloaded the bases with two outs, but DJ LeMahieu flew out to center to end the threat — though they did force Kikuchi to throw 27 pitches.
In the second inning, the Yankees were rallying again with runners on second and third and two outs when Ron Washington flashed four fingers as Judge walked to the plate.
This time it worked out perfectly as Bellinger flew out to leave the bases loaded.
Before Judge came to the plate for his third at-bat leading off the fifth inning, he tipped his cap to Washington, who did not respond by putting up four fingers. Instead, Judge flew out.
The Angels pitched to Judge again in the seventh inning with two outs and a man on first, which ended with Ryan Zeferjahn getting him looking on a called third strike.
