No one said baseball would always be a Kershaw vs. Scherzer-like pitchers' duel. Twenty-six combined runs scored on a hot Texas night as the Yankees bombed the Rangers, 21-5.
The evening got off to a very fun start for the hometown fans, thanks to an RBI single for Elvis Andrus, and the Rangers took an early 1-0 lead. Another walk by Capuano brought up rookie Ryan Rua with the bases loaded and two outs, and Rua hit a two-run single. Shin-Soo Choo followed with an RBI double to make it 4-0 early. (Little did the Rangers know that this would be their last hit of the night.) Robinson Chirinos was up next, and after working a 3-1 count, newly-promoted Diego Moreno started to warm in the pen. Chirinos walked to make it four walks in the first inning, and the Rangers had now batted around. In his second at-bat, Delino DeShields drew a walk, forcing in a run and making it 5-0, and out came Joe Girardi. Capuano's night was over quickly with a hideous final line: 2/3 of an inning, three hits, five earned runs, and five walks on 42 pitches. Moreno came in and threw a first-pitch strike, so things looked to be on the upswing. He then got Rougned Odor to ground out, ending the inning of agony.
Trying to bounce back from the first inning disaster, Chris Young came up to lead off the second. Young, facing a lefty, of course got a hit, a double down the line. Chase Headley singled to score Young, making it 5-1. John Ryan Murphy came up next, and he hit a single to move Headley to second, making it twoon with no outs. Didi Gregorius got hit by a pitch on the hand, sending Brendan Ryan up with the bases juiced. Ryan surprisingly hit a two-RBI double to right-center on a misplay by Odor to bring the score to 5-3, with runners on second and third with no outs. It was not exactly a pitcher's duel.
Jacoby Ellsbury kept the rally going with an RBI single to make it 5-4, with runners on the corners and no one out. Brett Gardner matched Ellsbury with an RBI single of his own, tying the game at 5-5. Why watch one New York baseball player carry a perfect game to the sixth when you can be genuinely entertained by bad pitching? Alex Rodriguez came up next, and he hit one high, far, and GON... off the wall (thanks, John Sterling), for an RBI double, giving the Yankees a 6-5 lead. Just like that, Perez's night was done, and both teams were digging into their bullpens before the third inning. Mark Teixeira stepped up to the plate to face Wandy Rodriguez, just one night after being robbed on several different occasions. Teixeira struck out, and the Rangers finally got an out, but Young walked, sending Headley to the plate with the bases loaded. He scored Gardner on an RBI single, making it 7-5. Gregorius kept the inning alive with a three-run triple, making the score 10-5. Ryan stepped up next, scoring Gregorius on another double, and the score became 11-5. Ellsbury struck out (slacker), ending the most entertaining inning of the season, which yielded 11 runs and 10 hits.
In the third inning, Gardner hit a leadoff single, and A-Rod followed with a liner for a single, advancing Gardner to third, as Teixeira stepped up. He walked to bring up Young with the bases loaded against a lefty, so he naturally hit a grand slam, making it 15-5. Phil Klein then took over the rubber for Texas.
Every Yankee in the starting lineup has scored at least one run. Mark Teixeira is the only one without a hit.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) July 29, 2015
The only highlight over the next three innings was how John Sterling kept saying it was 15-5 because he missed Gardner scoring on the error, and he was so concerned when he learned he was missing a run. That, and Diego Moreno was pitching spectacularly, but Sterling always provides entertainment.
Long story short, Gardner scored on an error by Andrus, Young hit an RBI double off the wall, and Murphy hit a two-RBI single to make the score 19-5. Also, Gregorius got another base hit, making him 4-for-4, setting a career-high. Moreno's night was done after the fifth, as Adam Warren came in. Moreno was simply superb, pitching 5 1/3 hitless innings, the Yankees' longest hitless relief outing in decades. The long night became even better when Ranger infielder Adam Rosales came on to pitch the ninth. He gave up a two-run homer to Gardner, but hey, fewer runs than Rodriguez and Perez. In the end, the Yankees won 21-5, and Moreno got his first major league win with Warren amusingly picking up the save thanks to its weird rules. The duo combined for a non-Capuano no-hitter, twirling 8 1/3 hitless frames. Congrats, Diego!
The Yankees will take on the Rangers again tomorrow night at 8:05 as they look to win another series. Girardi and company will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound to go up against Colby Lewis. Go Yankees!