The Yankees continued their winning ways on Wednesday afternoon in Game 1 of their doubleheader against the Los Angeles Angels with a 5-2 victory.

Here are the takeaways...

-With a long day of baseball ahead of them, the Yankees could have used some length out of Game 1 starter Luis Gil. However, a high pitch count early, which he could never recover from, forced the right-hander to go just five innings.

In those five innings, though, Gil kept the Angels off the scoreboard despite issuing five walks that contributed to his 107-pitch effort on Wednesday. Overall, the 26-year-old managed to turn in a solid outing and allowed no runs on two hits while striking out six.

Since the All-Star break, Gil has made three starts and has allowed four earned runs in 15.1 innings while striking out 20, but he hasn’t made it out of the sixth inning in any of those outings.

-It didn’t matter on Wednesday as New York scored two in the first to give its starter a quick lead that he would never relinquish. After Alex Verdugo started things off with a ground-rule double to break a personal 0-for-10 slide, Austin Wells burned Los Angeles, who had walked Aaron Judge in front of him, by driving in the game’s first run with a one-out single.

Wells finished 2-for-4 with a double and a walk as he continues to produce out of the cleanup spot this season. In just 13 games spanning 53 at-bats batting fourth, the catcher is hitting .358 with two home runs and nine RBI.

The 25-year-old rookie has brought his average up to .249 after hitting at or below .200 for a large portion of the season. In fact, over his last 30 games where he’s seen a bulk of the playing time with Jose Trevino injured, Wells is slashing .304/.416/.554 with six home runs and 18 RBI.

-In addition to Wells’ multi-hit game, Verdugo and Judge also had two hits apiece to go along with an RBI. Verdugo finished 2-for-5 with two doubles and scored two runs while Judge went 2-for-3 with a run scored and two walks, one being intentional with two outs, the bases empty and the Angels down by three runs.

-Anthony Volpe stayed hot with an RBI double in the first for his only hit of the game. Over his last 15 games, the 23-year-old is batting .344 with five home runs, 10 RBI and a .995 OPS, although he did fail to come through with runners on second and third with one out in the third.

-Batting ninth, Oswaldo Cabrera added a solo shot in the second inning for his seventh of the season. He finished 1-for-3 with a walk.

-The Yankees used four relievers to get the final 12 outs: Enyel De Los Santos (1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB), Jake Cousins (1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER), Luke Weaver (1 IP, 2 K) and Clay Holmes (1 IP, 2 K). Holmes got his 24th save of the season in the 5-2 win.

Game MVP: Austin Wells

The catcher made the Angels pay by batting behind Judge and got the scoring started for New York.

Here are the takeaways...

Game MVP: Austin Wells

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