Boy, it’s easy to tell which team is in first place and which team is trying to trick itself into believing it’s a contender, isn’t it? The Yankees blew a multiple leads Monday night, including a one-run ninth inning lead after waiting out a 215-minute rain delay. Brutal. The final score was 9-6 Rangers.
Pride, Power, Singles
The Yankees had 12 hits through the first six innings and all 12 were singles. Mark Teixeira, Didi Gregorius, and Chase Headley strung together hits for a second inning run to the tie the game 1-1, then Aaron Hicks plated a second run with a ground out. In the third, the Yankees blooped their way to another run, this one giving them a 3-2 lead. The hardest hit ball of the inning (by far) was Brett Gardner’s leadoff line out. Ian Desmond made a nice sliding catch in center.
After Gardner’s line out, Carlos Beltran blooped a single to center, Brian McCann drew a walk, Teixeira blooped another single to center, and Starlin Castro blooper yet another single to center to score the run. It was pretty much a typical Starlin at-bat. Rangers starter Chi Chi Gonzalez fed him soft stuff away, Castro hacked at it, and he managed to loop this pitch …
… into center to drive in a run. Go figure. That seems to be a Castro specialty.
Four more singles in the fifth inning created two more runs. Gardner and Beltran started the inning with back-to-back singles, then McCann lined a ball off the wall in right-center field. It was one of those “he hit it so hard he held himself to a single” singles. It actually looked like it had a chance to go out off the bat, but it stayed in the park and hit the wall. Still drove in a run. Gregorius came through with a clutch two-out single to score another run later in the inning. That made it 5-4 Yankees.
Ivan’s Last Stand?
You know, there’s no real reason to think the Yankees will pull Ivan Nova from the rotation, but if they aren’t at least considering it after Monday night, I’m not sure what else they need to see. On a night Chad Green dominated (again) for Triple-A Scranton, Nova allowed four runs in five innings to an admittedly great Rangers team. He’s now allowed 31 runs and 67 baserunners in his last seven starts and 39 innings. Yikes.
Desmond, the second batter of the game, swatted an opposite field solo homer to open the scoring. Nova has managed to allow at least one homer in all ten starts this season, and man, I’m not even mad. That’s amazing. The last Yankee to allow a homer in ten straight starts was (who else?) Phil Hughes back in 2012. He did it in 12 straight. The real back-breaker Monday night was Shin-Soo Choo’s two-out, two-strike, two-run single in the fourth. Nova was one strike away from stranding the bases loaded, but nope.
Following Monday’s game Nova is now sitting on a 5.32 ERA (5.05 FIP) in 69.1 innings. He had a 5.07 ERA (4.87 FIP) in 94 innings last year, so he’s basically been the same guy. Ivan’s first three or four starts this year were better than anything he did last year, but man, he is not good. Guys like Nova, who don’t have good command or a reliable third pitch, seem to suffer the most following Tommy John surgery. Maybe this is just who he is now?
A Rainy End
Nova was able to eke through five innings, and the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, meaning they were one inning away from handing their big three relievers a lead. The middle innings have been a nightmare all season, but journeyman Richard Bleier came in and retired the side in order in the sixth. He did allow two hard-hit at ’em balls, but hey, outs are outs. It was nice to see a non-big reliever toss a 1-2-3 inning for once.
Dellin Betances carved up the side in the seventh — he’s retired all 12 batters he’s faced in his last four outings — and Andrew Miller allowed a solo homer to Rougned Odor in the eighth. It was a bomb into the second deck too. Can’t say I expected the lefty to do that against Miller. Luckily Teixeira tacked on an insurance run with a cheap Yankee Stadium homer to right in the previous half-inning. The lead was 6-5 after Odor’s homer.
Now, it was raining for most of the game, but for the most part it was a light rain they could play through. It started to get more intense in the seventh, then even more intense in the eighth, and then even more intense in the ninth. The Yankees were up 6-5, Aroldis Chapman started the ninth in a legitimate downpour, and he walked the leadoff man on five pitches. It was light hitting No. 9 hitter Robinson Chirinos. Annoying!
Chapman then fell behind the next batter 3-1, which prompted Joe Girardi to come out of the dugout and complain about the conditions. The umpires got together and decided to put the tarp on the field. The Rangers were pissed and rightfully so. They pitched through similar conditions in the bottom of the eighth, yet the rain didn’t become a problem until Chapman walked a batter and fell behind another. I’d be pretty angry about that too.
Following what was officially a three hour and 35 minute rain delay (!), Kirby replaced Chapman at 2:15am ET and inherited the runner on first and the 3-1 count to the runner at the plate. Not ideal! I know everyone was hoping the game would be called. Yates was able to come back from the 3-1 count to fan Choo, which was huge. He had no margin for error and was able to get the out anyway.
Home plate ump John Tumpane was giving Yates a nice wide strike zone, yet he managed to plunk both Desmond and Nomar Mazara in 1-2 counts to load the bases. Sure enough, Yates went to a 1-2 count on Adrian Beltre, and thankfully he didn’t hit him. He served up a two-run single instead, giving the Rangers a 7-6 lead. Yates then hit Prince Fielder, because why not, and gave up a two-run single to Elvis Andrus. That gave Texas a 9-6 lead.
Leftovers
The Yankees put 20 runners on base in nine innings and somehow only scored six runs. I guess that’s what happens when only two of your 16 hits go for extra bases. Teixeira hit the homer and Gregorius had a double as well. Every starter had a hit except Hicks. What does Ken Singleton say, there’s always someone who doesn’t get invited to the party in games like this? That was Hicks.
Gardner (two), Beltran (three), Teixeira (three), Castro (two), and Gregorius (three) all had multiple hits. Teixeira’s gone deep in back-to-back games after going nearly two months without a dinger before the knee injury. Ellsbury, Beltran, McCann, and Headley drew the team’s four walks. Didi and Ellsbury stole bases too. The Yankees went 5-for-19 (.263) with runners in scoring position.
And finally, just because the ninth inning wasn’t absurd enough, the Rangers challenged Castro’s leadoff infield single in the ninth inning. At 2:39am ET. The call was upheld and he was safe. The Yankees brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but alas, the rally fell short. I look forward to this one being blamed on the rain and not the crappy roster.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head over to ESPN for the box score and updated standings. MLB.com has the video highlights. We have Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages too. Here’s the win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
This four-game series is just getting started. The Yankees and Rangers will be play the second game Tuesday night, when veteran lefty aces CC Sabathia and Cole Hamels are on the mound. The Yankees won’t play another home game until July 15th after this series, so head on over to RAB Tickets if you want to catch any of these next three games live.
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