Rangers Beat Yankees
{fshare id=5385}
ARLINGTON, Texas — While the Texas Rangers play for next year, J.P. Arencibia is playing for redemption.
Arencibia, acquired in an offseason trade before being sent to Triple-A while in a woeful early-season slump, keyed the Rangers’ decisive four-run fifth with a two-run single with two outs in a 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday.
Shortstop Elvis Andrus and third baseman Adrian Beltre each had run-scoring hits for Texas in the inning.
Arencibia has a team-high nine RBIs in 11 games since the All-Star break after beginning the season hitting .133 and being shipped out.
“I’m just trying to help us win, especially with the way I started,” Arencibia said. “I’ve said it numerous times, I was embarrassed the way I was playing. I want to do what Texas brought me in to do, which is help this team win.
Yu Darvish (10-6) earned the victory, striking out eight while giving up two runs on nine hits and one walk over seven innings for the Rangers (42-64), who won for only the fifth time in July.
Right-handed reliever Neftali Feliz worked a perfect ninth to record his second save in as many opportunities this season. Left-hander Neal Cotts worked around two singles in the eighth to hold the lead.
Darvish gave up two solo home runs to Yankees center fielder Brett Gardner, the first
multi-homer game of his career, and three historic hits to shortstop Derek Jeter, who went 3-for-4 with a walk.
Jeter had a single in the first, a double in the third and another base hit in the seventh, which enabled him to pass Boston Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski for seventh on the all-time hits list and third in American League history.
Jeter sits 95 hits behind Tris Speaker and more than 770 back of Ty Cobb’s 4,191.
“There’s a lot of things we’re getting to see this year,” manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s been neat to watch. He’s amazing.”
Right-handed pitcher David Phelps (5-5) took the loss for the Yankees (54-51).
Phelps gave up four runs on eight hits, including five in the fifth, and a walk — also in the fifth — over six innings. He struck out three.
“He pitched a pretty good game,” Girardi said. “In that one inning, he just couldn’t get that one out.”
After getting a lead, Darvish shut down the Yankees in the sixth and worked out of a two-out jam in the seventh. The Yankees advanced Gardner, who went 3-for-5, to third and Jeter to second before first baseman Brian McCann struck out to end the inning.
McCann had reached base safely in 19 of his past 20 games and 15 consecutive but went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Gardner’s home runs in the third and fifth innings accounted for the game’s early runs, but the Rangers answered in the fifth. Darvish allowed base runners in every inning but the sixth.
“He bent but he didn’t break,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “He never gave in, he just kept pitching. He didn’t have command of his fastball tonight so he had to go to his breaking pitches.
“He didn’t really have anything for Gardner or Derek Jeter. Other than that, I thought he did a tremendous job of bearing down.”
Andrus’ single to left scored catcher Chris Gimenez, and Beltre’s double scored Andrus, who advanced to third on right fielder Alex Rios’ base hit.
Arencibia’s two-run single scored two more and gave the Rangers a lead.
Jeter stroked the first pitch he saw from Darvish into left in the first and lashed a two-out double to right center in the third to tie Yastrzemski.
“You want to come up with that opportunity,” said Arencibia. “I was able to hit a good pitch.”
