The Yankees won the series against the Rangers
The Yankees won the series against the Texas Rangers after scoring just eight runs in the three games. The won the last two games after losing the first game, on Friday, 4–2.
The Yankees had an offensive outburst on Sunday scoring five runs in the 5–3 win. They had scored less than five runs in each of their last seven games and had only scored five runs combined in their last three games.
The Yankees won and scored five runs. Angels scored 23 runs in first four innings of their game yesterday. Yankees have really struggled to score runs last few weeks going back to when Aaron Judge got injured at Dodgers Stadium, but in this series the pitching dominated overall and the offense did just enough to get a big series win over the team with the second most wins in the American League.
Yankees had their 10th sellout of the season on Sunday. The announced crowd was 46,064.
On Saturday, in a game that seemed like it would rain a few hours earlier, Luis Severino was excellent and fired on all cylinders holding the Rangers scoreless in 6.0 innings while allowing five hits, the bullpen allowed three hits in three scoreless innings and Billy McKinney had a big solo homer to lead to the team’s 1–0 shutout. It was the team’s fifth shutout of the season.
On Sunday, the Yankees were a solid 4–12 with runners in scoring position, they had an impressive six doubles and Harrison Bader had a multi-hit game.
The Rangers had a 3–2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning when Bader hit his second double of the game.
Anthony Volpe got a leadoff double to center in the eighth and he got to second standing up due to his elite speed as ball wasn’t hit very deep. Jose Trevino then hit infield single in the hole at short. Bader, who is from Westchester and went to high school in The Bronx, stepped up for the team as he hit a 2-run double, his second extra-base hit of the game, to the wall on a high fastball to give the Yankees the lead.
Oswaldo Cabrera was the pinch runner and he scored easily with good base running. Giancarlo Stanton had a single to left in the 8th to score Bader and give the Yankees an insurance run and make the score 5–3. Stanton was 0–2 before that single and was 2–30 in his previous eight games.
Bader now has 2 go-ahead hits in the 8th inning or later while trailing this season. That’s tied for the most in the Majors. This was a big game for Bader in more ways than one since he had two RBI and in his previous 11 games he only had two RBI.
DJ LeMahieu had a double play to end fourth inning but it was a positive that he had a 2-run double in the second inning to get the Yankees on the scoreboard. He only had two RBI in his previous 16 games. LeMahieu has really struggled in June since in 13 games he has a .174 average (8–46) with just four RBI. It is a positive that he has a double in each of his last two games after having only three extra base hits in his previous 11 games and is making more hard contact.
The Yankees are a better offense when LeMahieu, who finished in top five in MVP voting in his first two seasons with the Yankees in 2019 and 2020 and lead the league in average in 2020, and his last two games could be a sign that he is improving at the plate
Bader had what seemed like a big line drive double in the sixth inning off of Nathan Eovaldi. He smoked the ball to the wall in left center. The ball bounced twice and was fielded at the warning track. That was Eovaldi’s first hit allowed since the second inning. Anthony Rizzo then grounded out to first and was frustrated with himself throwing his helmet lightly in the dugout. Stanton then continued to struggle as he struck out looking to end the inning. The Yankees could not take advantage of having a runner in scoring position with one out in that inning.
Eovaldi allowed two earned runs in 5.2 innings and he did a good job bouncing back after allowing two runs in the second inning when it seemed like he might not bet farther than the fourth inning. Eovaldi has a very impressive .160 batting average against third time through lineup. He was pitching third time through lineup in sixth inning. Eovaldi has dominant stuff and for a few seasons earlier in his career he had the fastest fastball in the league.
He developed his splitter with Yankees and started throwing his cutter again when Larry Rothschild was his pitching coach with the Yankees. He has five pitches, which gives him a lot of pitches to choose from. In his two seasons with the Yankees, 2015 and 2016, he had a 4.45 ERA in 51 games (48 starts) with a 1.387 WHIP. His career ERA of 4.05 is a good bit better than those two seasons and he has had an ERA below 3.90 in each of the season including this one going back to 2020.
He grunts like tennis player after each pitch. He did not have his best stuff in his first two innings and then was much better. He pushes the ball as his release is a little different than most.
Eovaldi, who is 33 and in his 12th MLB season, has an impressive 2.82 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in 16 starts this season. He retired the side in order in the fifth inning and was taken out of the game in the sixth inning after getting Rizzo to ground out to first after Bader’s double.
Jose Trevino had a great snap pickoff throw to get Leody Taveras (.298 average) out for the second out of the fourth inning. The Yankees held the productive Rangers number nine hitter to 1–8 in the first two games of the series. After the pickoff by the Yankees starting catcher, Marcus Semien then flied out to Jake Bauers, who hit the solo homer that one the game on Saturday, in right two pitches later to end the 4th inning. The pickoff helped Gerrit Cole face the minimum amount of batters that inning.
It was a grind in this game for Cole and because of his pitch count and lack of his usual dominant stuff, he was not able to get through five innings pitched. This was his first time since June 9 last season that Cole did not get through five innings. Cole did not have a lot of belief in his fastball today. Jimmy Cordero was able to get the last batter out to keep the score 3–2 in the fifth inning.
Nick Ramirez had a big strikeout on a sinker to end the top of the sixth and strand two runners on base. He was perfect in his 1.1 innings and has allowed just three earned runs in 17.1 innings leading to a dominant 1.56 ERA in his 13 games this season. He has 15 hits allowed and 14 strikeouts in 17.1 innings and has thrown more than 1.0 innings in seven of his 13 games this season and has thrown at least two innings four times.
The Yankees got good news regarding starting pitcher Carlos Rodon since he made another big step towards making his debut with the Yankees as he has been on the injured list all season with a forearm strain. In four innings on Sunday with Double-A Somerset, he allowed one hit, zero runs, had four strikeouts and threw 48 pitches in his second rehab start. The Yankees said he will get one more rehab start. He is on track to make his Yankees debut July 5 against Orioles, which will make the rotation even better as he had an ERA below three in each of the last two seasons.
Ian Hamilton is expected to be activated on the road trip in Oakland before the game on Tuesday (the Yankees have an off day today as they travel cross country). He made his last minor league rehab appearance on Saturday.
Hamilton had been on the injured list with a groin strain. He has a slombio (slider and changeup mix) and he has been outstanding this season. Hamilton last appeared in a game on May 16 when he allowed a hit and two walks but did not allow a run to score in 0.2 innings. In his 22 innings pitched this season, he has only allowed 15 hits and three earned runs leading to a 1.23 ERA and he has 30 strikeouts in those 22 innings and zero homers allowed.
He did not allow a run in his last nine games and was a great under the radar buy low offseason acquisition by the Yankees. Due to injuries including getting hit in the face by a foul ball in the dugout, he had only pitched in 15 MLB games the last five seasons (his MLB debut came back in 2018 with the Chicago White Sox). The bullpen has led the AL in ERA for much of the season and it will now be even better with Hamilton’s return from the injured list.
