Fresh off ‘surreal’ performance, Yankees and J.C. Escarra open series vs. Angels

The New York Yankees have won six of their past seven games heading into the opener of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday in Anaheim, Calif.

J.C. Escarra recorded the first three-hit performance of his career and added two RBIs as New York claimed a series victory with a 5-4 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.

“He can really swing the bat,” Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone said of Escarra, who made his MLB debut on March 29. “But the real good part about it is what he’s bringing behind the plate on the days he catches. I mean, he’s been excellent. … On the days I don’t have (Austin Wells) in there, we’ve got a ton of confidence in J.C.”

That is a long way away from what Escarra was doing at this time two years ago. He was playing independent league ball and driving an Uber or whatever it took to support his family.

“It’s surreal,” the 30-year-old Escarra said. “Just from what I was doing. Sometimes I sit back and I think about it — where I’m at today, who I’m playing with, the name on my jersey. It’s incredible.”

Aaron Judge had an RBI double that snapped a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning on Sunday. He had two hits and is batting a robust .397 on the season.

Judge went 5-for-12 with two homers, three RBIs and four runs during the three-game series in Denver.

The Yankees have yet to announce their starting pitcher for Monday’s series opener.

As for the Angels, they hope to swing the bats much better than they have the past two games.

Los Angeles saw its eight-game winning streak come to a halt in a 6-2 setback to the Miami Marlins on Saturday. The Angels followed that up by mustering just three hits in a 3-0 loss in the series finale on Sunday.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to reach that roll,” Angels manager Ron Washington said, referring to the way the team batted during its winning streak.

“We’re going to get to the point where we swing the bat well, and I’m at the point right now where I knew we wasn’t going to be doing what we did, but I thought we would be consistent throughout the lineup and making something happen, but the pitching [Miami] threw at us the past couple days thought otherwise.”

Marlins’ starter Edward Cabrera allowed all three hits and struck out 10 in 5 2/3 innings on Sunday.

“The majority of it was Cabrera,” Washington said. “I mean, he was really good today. He was able to spot his fastball, and he had a good breaking ball.”

Right-hander Jack Kochanowicz (3-5, 5.03) will start Monday for Los Angeles and face the Yankees for the first time in his career.

Kochanowicz allowed one run each to the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers in back-to-back victories before settling for a no-decision on Wednesday as the Angels beat the Athletics 10-5. He yielded four runs on seven hits — including two homers — in that game.

–Field Level Media