NEW YORK — Zach Neto has taken the opportunity of consecutive series against New York teams to introduce himself to the fans and the media in the sport’s biggest market.
The Angels shortstop hit a pair of home runs in a doubleheader against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, including a grand slam, three hits and six RBIs in an 8-2 victory in the second game.
Neto’s homer provided the Angels’ only runs in their 5-2 loss in the first game.
It all came a few days after Neto’s three-run homer put the Angels on top in a victory over the New York Mets at Angel Stadium.
In the four games since Manager Ron Washington moved Neto to the No. 2 spot, he’s 7 for 14 with three homers and 12 RBIs. Neto actually started on his current upswing a few weeks before. He’s now hitting .342 with an OPS of 1.083 since July 9.
“I can see a lot more patience,” Washington said of Neto after the first game. “I don’t see the big wild swing where his body is looking in the dugout. He’s staying on the field, and he’s getting results.”
Neto is now hitting .261 with 16 homers and a .781 OPS this season. The Angels have not had a shortstop produce a full season OPS better than .776 since Jim Fregosi in 1970.
“I’ve been seeing it pretty well,” Neto said. “I’ve been putting a good amount of work in the cages and BP and all that, just to be able to translate it to the game. I feel like it’s starting to come around a little bit.”
Neto came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning of Wednesday’s second game. Yankees rookie starter Will Warren had just walked Nolan Schanuel to make it 2-0.
Neto worked the count full and then he got a fastball over the outer half and drilled it 412 feet, over the left field fence.
The next time he came to the plate, in the fourth inning, he punched a double into the gap in right-center, driving in two more runs to push the lead to 8-1.
“I was just locked in on what I needed to do,” Neto said. “I did everything I can to manufacture runs and get a win.”
Neto became the first shortstop to have six RBIs against the Yankees in the Bronx, in more than a century of games in the two ballparks.
Neto’s big day began with a two-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 1, although that came too late to help much because the Angels were down 5-0 at the time.
That game got away under the watch of starter Davis Daniel, who lasted 3⅓ innings and was charged with all the runs the Yankees scored.
Daniel has been good in two of his five starts – allowing one run in 13 innings in those games. His 6.04 ERA demonstrates how rough the other three starts have been.
“There’s definitely confidence knowing that I can have success up here,” Daniel said. “So just continuing to build off that. The other stuff, the not-as-good outings, we’ve got to figure it out, figure out some consistency if we want to stick up here.”
The Game 2 starter, Carson Fulmer, allowed only two runs, but his problem was the Yankees drove up his pitch count. He needed 90 pitches for four innings, and did not qualify for the victory.
Fulmer, however, has given the Angels a chance in all five of his starts, posting a 3.60 ERA in those games.
“I thought he gave us everything he had,” Washington said. “After that fourth inning, he just ran out of gas, and I didn’t want to take a chance sending him back out there and them starting something that I couldn’t stop, so I wanted to give my relievers fresh innings to get started.”
Washington summoned Hunter Strickland for the fifth and sixth, and then José Quijada, Roansy Contreras and Mike Baumann blanked the Yankees over the rest of the game.
Although it ended up a blowout, Washington said it never felt that way.
“Tonight we needed everything that (Neto) gave us,” Washington said. “We won that game 8-2, but at no time were we comfortable.”
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