Tommy Kahnle was supposed to add some needed depth to an overworked Yankees bullpen.
On Saturday, making his first appearance since being shelved for more than a month with shoulder tendinitis, Kahnle didn’t provide any help in an ugly 11-4 loss to the Angels at Yankee Stadium.
While Kahnle was able to hit the mid-90s after seeing his velocity dip early in the season, he was hardly effective.
Kahnle started the sixth inning with the Yankees trailing by just a run and immediately walked Jose Briceno, the No. 9 hitter. Kahnle wasn’t helped by a Gleyber Torres error on a routine play at second, but he then gave up a run-scoring double to Mike Trout — although Kahnle was hardly alone there.
But a walk to Chris Young was followed by a two-run single to center by Albert Pujols.
Surprisingly, Kahnle was left in to face lefty-swinging Shohei Ohtani and got him to hit into a double play.
“I thought he looked OK,” Aaron Boone said. “He was spraying his fastball a little bit. … Hopefully, with getting his feet wet again and back into the mix, it’s the start of him getting going.”


