Goldy goes deep, Bednar slams the door as the Yankees avoid a sweep in Texas

Texas—The Yankees avoided the sweep and their third six-game losing streak of the season, as they took down the Rangers 3-2. Carlos Rodon got the start for the Yankees and faced off against Jack Leiter. 

Trent Grisham led off the ballgame with a single to right field. Ben Rice then chased ball four out of the zone to strikeout, followed by Aaron Judge swinging at ball four in a 3-0 count to pop out. Cody Bellinger then popped out as well, as what could have been a promising top of the first inning got wasted by poor swing decisions. 

In the bottom of the first inning, Rodon worked around a one-out infield single and picked up his first two strikeouts of the ballgame to put together a scoreless inning. 

Rodon worked a scoreless bottom of the second inning thanks to a nice 4-6-3 double play turned by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe. 

Ryan McMahon led off the top of the third inning with a line drive single to right field. A couple of batters later, Rice worked a two-out walk. However, Judge struck out, looking to strand two runners on base. 

Sam Haggerty delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. 

Belli and Jasson Dominguez both worked walks in the top of the fourth inning. Then Anthony Volpe evened things up at 1-1 thanks to an RBI single off his high school teammate Leiter. Volpe and Dominguez then executed a perfect double steal, and a bad throw from former Yankee catcher Kyle Higashioka that allowed another run to score and give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. 

Rodon put together a nice shut-down inning in the bottom of the fourth and recorded his third punchout of the game. 

Rodon gave up a swinging bunt single, walked a batter, and gave up a bloop single that dropped in no man's land between Volpe, Grisham, and Dominguez to load the bases with one out in the fifth inning. Marcus Semien then came through with a sac fly to tie the game up at 2-2. 

Rodon walked the leadoff batter in the bottom of the sixth, then was replaced on the mound by Mark Lieter Jr. and got out of the inning unscathed thanks to a nice 4-3 double play turned by Jazz. 

Carlos Rodon's final line: five plus innings pitched, six hits allowed, two earned runs, four walks, and three strikeouts on 93 pitches. Rodon threw his fastball almost half the time at 49%, the slider 26%, the changeup 13%, the sinker 11%, and the curveball just 1% of the time. Rodon was decent, the walks just killed him again, as he now has walked nine batters in his last two starts, killing any chance he had of going deep in this game. The Yankees haven't had a starter record an out in the sixth inning since last Wednesday; they can't expect to win games by asking their bullpen to get 12 outs.  

"You know, it was kind of a battle," Rodon said. "The walks aren't great. Fell behind guys at times and just try to minimize damage and just keep us ahead in the game or keep it tied, obviously. You know, I'd like to go longer than that and be more economical with pitches. It's just the walks aren't helping. So just got to get ahead and get quicker outs."

Paul Goldschmidt pinch hit for Austin Wells with one out in the top of the seventh and launched a go-ahead solo home run, his 10th of the year, to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Goldy is now hitting .410 with a 1.217 OPS against left-handers this season. Rice then legged out a two-out infield single, followed by a line drive single to left from Judge, his first hit since returning from the IL. Belli then went from down 0-2 in the count to working a walk to load the bases for Jazz. However, Jazz flew out to the warning track in left field to strand the bases loaded. 

"I'm getting a little a lot more practice this year, pintch hitting," Goldy said on his pinch hit go-ahead home run. "But just be ready, and I just think of it kind of like my first at-bat of the game and not try to think too much about it. Just be ready to go, and you know I got down 0-2, and fortunately, I was able to get a pitch up and get it out of there." 

Tim Hill took over for Lieter in the bottom of the seventh inning and gave up a one-out single, then another runner reached on a catcher's interference from Rice behind the plate. Hill picked up a big strikeout on Corey Seager, then Yerry De Los Santos replaced Hill on the bump and walked Semien to load the bases, then picked up a flyout to strand the bases loaded. 

De Los Santos remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth inning and picked up the first out of the inning, then turned to David Bednar to try and pick up the five-out save.  Bednar picked up a pair of strikeouts to keep the Yankees ' one-run lead intact. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Bednar remained in the game. It looked like Bednar struck out the side in order, but the ump missed a clear right on the corner strike three call, leading to a walk. It looked like Boone was coming out to take Bednar out, but Bednar convinced Boone to keep him in the game. Bednar eventually struck out Adolis Garcia on a beautiful splitter to end this one 3-2 and help the Yankees salvage the final game of this series. 

"Yeah, I was going to take him out, honestly," Boone said. "I said, I'm going to you here. And he gave me a look like, no, you're not. And so I said you sure? And he's like, yeah, let's go. I got this guy." 

"Yeah, no, absolutely. That was huge to allow me to have the opportunity to do that," Bednar said on the opportunity to pick up a five-out save. "And I'm glad I was able to come through with it."

The Yankees now head back to the Bronx and have a much-needed off day tomorrow before taking on the Houston Astros in a three-game series starting Friday. Cam Schlittler will get the starting nod for the Yankees and face off against AL Cy Young Award contender Hunter Brown. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Apple TV+.

My thoughts on the game: I have seen enough; Bednar should be the closer going forward. He was nasty today, picking up the final five outs all via the strikeout. Rodon didn't have his best stuff today, just walking too many hitters with four walks, destroying any chance he had of going deep into this game. Volpe picked up an RBI single, setting a new career high in RBIs with 61, with a little less than two months left in the season. Dominguez also manufactured a run on the base paths with his elite speed. Judge picked up his first hit since returning from the IL with a rocket single to left field, 106 mph off the bat. Then Goldy Knocks delivered the game-winning run thanks to his second home run of the series after a 29-game homer-less streak that ended Monday. The brutal road trip finally came to an end as the Yankees finished 1-5 on this trip, and are now 27-32 on the road this season, which has to improve down the stretch. On to Friday as Altuve, Correa, and the Astros come into the Bronx for a huge three-game set.