Rangers Lose To Yankees
ARLINGTON, Texas — Alex Rodriguez made his 40th birthday a memorable one before Didi Gregorius stole the show.
The duo combined to lead the New York Yankees to a 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.
Rodriguez hit a solo homer in the sixth inning, a blast that was sandwiched by two big hits from Gregorius, who set a career high with four RBIs and matched his career best with three hits.
The Yankees are 3-1 on their 10-game road trip, while the Rangers fell for the 11th time in their past 12 games at Globe Life Park.
The big night for Gregorius should come as no surprise as the shortstop has three of his five homers this year against the Rangers. Four of his eight career round-trippers came against Texas.
Gregorius tied the game at 2-2 with a two-run home run off Matt Harrison in the third inning and then broke it open with a two-run single to right in the seventh.
“I just think he’s just maturing as a player,” New York manager Joe Girardi said of Gregorius. “He got off to a slow start, and (we’ve) just kind of seen an upward kick the whole season. This has been his best month. June was better than May, May was better than April.”
Gregorius helped make a winner out of Ivan Nova, who allowed two runs in the
second inning but that was it in his five-inning outing. Nova allowed five hits and struck out two before turning the game over to the New York bullpen, which produced four hitless innings.
Harrison, who was making his third start since returning from spinal fusion surgery, allowed six runs on six hits in six-plus innings.
“I feel like I didn’t get loose until about the fifth inning,” he said. “The third inning I made some bad pitches to start that inning off and got some trouble there. After us scoring the two runs, I went and gave it back to them, gave the momentum right back to them.”
Texas took a 2-0 lead in the second on an RBI double by shortstop Elvis Andrus and a run-scoring single from center fielder Leonys Martin. That would be all the offense for the Rangers, who finished with five hits.
After not getting a hit in the first two innings, the Yankees jumped on Harrison for three runs on three hits in the third. Gregorius followed a single by third baseman Chase Headley his homer to tie the game.
Second baseman Brendan Ryan lined a triple into the corner, and left fielder Chris Young’s sacrifice fly to left put the Yankees on top 3-2.
Rodriguez, who has hit six homers on his birthday, including four at Globe Life Park, got into the action with his shot to right off Harrison in the sixth. It was the designated hitter’s fourth home run in the past three days. He became the fourth player to ever homer as a teen and in his 40s.
“It’s amazing,” Rodriguez said. “Hitting one as a teenager and hitting one here today. A lot has happened, and I’m just happy to be here.”
Despite the poor results, Texas manager Jeff Banister saw some positives from Harrison.
“Good hitters capitalize on their approach more than anything else,” Banister said. “Some hard-hit balls and some balls that fell in that weren’t hard hit also. I felt that Matt utilized his pitches as good as he could tonight.”
