Yankees: 5 unforgivable regular-season losses that sealed NYY’s 2021 fate

2. Angels’ Improbable Comeback After Rain Delay

This is the day the season truly ended. June 30, 2021. Rest in peace to the 2021 New York Yankees. This one summed it all up.

Up 8-4 in the top of the ninth and needing just two outs to finish it off, the “vaunted” Yankees bullpen did it again. Chapman and Luetge. The worst left-handed tag team there seemingly was this past season. If this were a tables, ladders and chairs match, Edge would’ve speared Chapman 20 feet in the air and Luetge would’ve been powerbombed through three tables by Bubba Ray Dudley.

Chapman walked three of the first four batters he saw and then gave up the game-tying grand slam to Jared Walsh. It happened in an instant … and it was also after 1 a.m. ET because of multiple rain delays (why wasn’t this game just fully called off, by the way? Yankees were up four and we didn’t have to stay up past midnight to determine a winner in a late June game).

Then came Luetge, who allowed a walk, a single, another single and a double to get three more across the plate. Wahoo! 11-8, Angels lead. This was after the Bombers chased soon-to-be MVP Shohei Ohtani from this one with SEVEN first-inning runs.

Care to know what happened next? The Yankees went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.