Macon MFA Agri Services

09/02 00:07 CDT Spencer Jones and Jazz Chisholm Jr. back Gerrit Cole in Yankees' 7-3 win over Angels Spencer Jones and Jazz Chisholm Jr. back Gerrit Cole in Yankees' 7-3 win over Angels By MIKE DiGIOVANNA Associated Press ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) --- Spencer Jones homered and drove in three runs, Jazz Chisholm Jr. also went deep and finished with three hits, and the New York Yankees pulled away Tuesday night for a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Jones and Chisholm launched back-to-back homers to give Gerrit Cole a 3-0 lead before even throwing a pitch in his latest return home. New York moved four games ahead of rival Boston for the top American League wild card and remained 4 1/2 games behind first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East. A day that began with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment reaching an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in the Angels from owner Arte Moreno ended with the struggling Angels losing for the ninth time in 11 games. Cole (8-7) gave up three runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking one. Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn and John Schreiber held Los Angeles to one hit the rest of the way. Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez (4-6) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out seven and walking two. The Angels trailed 4-1 when Wade Meckler, who had three hits, opened the sixth with a single. Moiss Ballesteros singled and Christian Moore sliced a two-run triple to right field that eluded a diving Jones and trimmed the deficit to 4-3. Cole was pulled in favor of Headrick, who stranded Moore by striking out pinch-hitter Jose Siri and getting Oswald Peraza to fly out. New York pushed the lead to 6-3 in the eighth when Jones walked, Chisholm singled and Trent Grisham, mired in a 2-for-42 slump, fouled off two bunt attempts before hitting an RBI single. Ryan McMahon loaded the bases with a bunt single and Paul Goldschmidt hit a sacrifice fly. Consecutive singles by Cody Bellinger, who had three of New York's 14 hits, Luis Garca Jr. and Jones made it 7-3 in the ninth. The Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the first. Bellinger singled before Jones hit a two-run homer --- his second longball in two nights --- and Chisholm followed with an opposite-field shot into the left-field corner. Ben Rice singled in the third, went to third on Bellinger's single and scored on Garca's double-play grounder for a 4-0 advantage. Los Angeles pulled to 4-1 in the bottom half when Zach Neto singled, stole second and scored on Meckler's two-out single.

Up next Yankees RHP Cam Schlittler (12-6, 2.09 ERA) faces LHP Reid Detmers (4-8, 3.54) in Wednesday night's series finale. ___ See AP's full MLB coverage here

	Copyright DTN. All rights reserved. Disclaimer.