Spencer Jones and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back home runs during a three-run first inning and Cody Bellinger went 3-for-5 with two runs scored to help propel the New York Yankees to a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Jones finished 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs scored, a stolen base and three RBIs and Chisholm had three hits and scored twice for New York (79-60), which clubbed 14 hits while evening the three-game series at a game apiece.
Gerrit Cole (8-7), who prepped at nearby Orange Lutheran High School, picked up the win, allowing three runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out five while improving to 5-1 in seven career starts at Angel Stadium.
Christian Moore had a two-run triple, Wade Meckler went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run and Zach Neto had two hits and a run scored for Los Angeles (53-86), which lost for eighth time in nine games. Mike Trout finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts to have his 13-game hit streak against the Yankees snapped.
Grayson Rodriguez (4-6) suffered the loss, allowing four runs on seven hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out seven.
New York jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run home run by Jones, a 398-foot drive into the bleachers in right, followed by Chisholm’s 19th homer, a 341-foot opposite-field line drive just inside the foul pole in left.
The Yankees extended the lead to 4-0 in the third when Ben Rice led off with a single, advanced to third on a single by Bellinger and scored on a double play groundout by Luis Garcia Jr.
Los Angeles cut the lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the third when Neto singled, stole second and scored on a single by Meckler, and then closed to within a run in the sixth on Moore’s two-run triple into the right field corner.
New York answered with two runs in the eighth off reliever Samy Natera Jr. to make it 6-3. Trent Grisham ended an 0-for-23 slump with an RBI single to left to drive in Jones and Paul Goldschmidt added a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to drive in Chisholm.
The Yankees added an insurance run in the ninth on an RBI single by Jones.