The Texas Rangers (51-28) were up by six runs against the New York Yankees (38-39) in the bottom of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium. Yankee’s shortstop Didi Gregorius and catcher Brian McCann were the heroes of the night.
Rangers reliever Sam Dyson came out of the bullpen for Matt Bush to shut the door on the Yankees. Dyson was unsuccessful after 16 pitches thrown giving up three runs on two homers by Gregorius and McCann. McCann also had a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth of Caesar Ramos to make it 7-3 Rangers. He’s the only Yankee to ever hit a home run in the eighth and ninth inning.
McCann’s three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth knotted the game up at seven bringing in Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury. Gardner hit an RBI single in his at bat. Starlin Castro walked and Did Gregorius hit a 365-foot blast to right field to send home fans happy with a thrilling 9-7 win.
“I didn’t know it was gone right away,” Gregorius said on his walk-off homer. “I didn’t want to smile, but as soon as I rounded third, see all the guys there, everybody cheering, I had to smile right there.”
Texas was pulling away in the bottom of the third scoring fun runs on four hits. Nomar Mazara hit a three-run double off Tanaka. Robinson Chirinos, Shin-Soo Choo, and Ian Desmond came in to score. Prince Fielder then hit an infield single to short bringing in Mazara.
Ranger’s Elvis Andrus hit an RBI single in the second inning to give Texas a 1-0 lead. Fielder scored after doubling to deep left center. The Yankees answer right back with a solo homer by Chase Headley off Texas starter Nick Martinez in the bottom half of the inning. He has five home runs on the year.
The Rangers increased their lead in the sixth inning with a solo home run from Roughned Odor off Tanaka to make it to 6-1 Texas. Odor has 15 homers on the season so far.
New York’s McCann lead off the sixth with a walk and Headley hit a sacrifice fly to right driving in McCann to cut it to a 6-2 deficit.
Adrian Beltre led off the seventh and hit a solo home run to right field off of reliever Luis Cessa to increase to deficit back to five. That was the only hit and run Cessa gave up in three innings of work.
Tanaka was pulled after six innings of work. He allowed eight hits, six runs, one home run, and struck out seven. He earned a no decision. Reliever Luis Cessa earned his first win of the season.
Dyson got second loss of the season with a third of an inning pitched, allowing three hits, fours runs and two homers.
The Yankees and Rangers have one more game left in their four-game series. They play at 1:05 on Thursday with Michael Pineda (3-7 5.51 ERA) starting for New York and A.J. Griffin(3-0 3.08 ERA) for Texas. Texas leads the series 2-1.
