Williams blows another save as the Yankees collapse late in an 8-5 loss to the Rangers

Texas—The Yankees were looking good early, but ultimately dropped game one to the Rangers 8-5. Max Fried got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Patrick Corbin. 

Paul Goldschmidt wasted no time getting the scoring started via a leadoff home run, his ninth of the year, to make it a 1-0 Yankees lead. Amed Rosario followed that up with a double in the right-center gap for his 1,000th career hit. Giancorlo Stanton followed that up with a walk, and a couple of batters later, Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a two-out walk. However, Anthony Volpe went down on strikes to strand the bases loaded. Austin Slater also ended up leaving the game in the first inning after it looked like he pulled a hamstring; Jasson Dominguez replaced him. 

In the bottom of the first inning, Fried retired the Rangers in order and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame. 

Austin Wells led off the top of the first inning with a much-needed single the other way to left field. A couple of batters later, Gold Knocks split the left-center gap for a double to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Rosario followed that up with an RBI single to make it a 2-0 game, as the right-handed heavy lineup is working early on. Cody Bellinger then dunked in a RBI bloop single to left field to make it a 3-0 game. A wild pitch allowed Rosario and Belli to move into scoring position, followed by Stanton's second walk of the game to load the bases with one out. However, Dominguez struck out, and Jazz flew out to strand the bases loaded for the second inning in a row. 

Fried served up an RBI single to former Yankee Josh Smith in the bottom of the first inning to make it a 3-1 game. A couple of batters later, another former Yankee, Ezequiel Duran, picked up a two-run single to tie the game up at 3-3. Fried then tried picking a runner off at second base and threw the ball into center field, allowing the go-ahead run to score to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead. 

Goldy Knocks led off the top of the fourth inning with a single for his third knock of the night. A couple of batters later, Giancarlo Stanton sent an absolute laser two-run shot to center field, 115 mph off the bat for his 10th home run of the season, giving the Yankees a 5-4 lead. 

In the top of the fifth, Jazz led things off with a rocket double into the right field corner. But that would be all for the Yankees in the fifth inning. 

Fried recorded three strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth inning to work around a one-out single and put together a scoreless frame. 

Luke Weaver replaced Fried on the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning and worked a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout.  

Max Fried's final line: five innings pitched, eight hits allowed, four earned runs, three walks, 13 swings and misses, and seven strikeouts on 105 pitches. Fried threw his cutter 27% of the time, the sinker 21%, the curveball 17%, the changeup 16%, the fastball 10%, the sweeper 9%, and the slider 1% of the time. Fried did not have his best stuff tonight; his command was off, leading to three walks. He also didn't help himself by throwing a ball into center field on a pick-off attempt. 

"Yeah, I mean, you know, teams are typically aggressive," Fried said. "You just got to be able to make the adjustment on the fly and I just didn't do it quick enough, so it's frustrating, especially coming out and needing to win and putting us in a hole and the guys scraped it together and I was able to fight back, but I got to do a better job."

Camilo Doval took over for Weaver on the bump in the bottom of the seventh inning and retired the Rangers in order, picking up a strikeout for a big bounce back out after a brutal debut Friday night. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, David Bednar took over for Doval and did his job, retiring the Rangers in order with a strikeout, to put together a nice bounce back in after a tough debut Friday. 

Belli worked a one-out walk in the top of the ninth inning, then stole second base, his 10th stolen base of the year. But that would be all for the Yanks in the ninth as Dominguez flew out to left field to strand Belli. 

The Yankees' closer, Devin Williams, was called upon to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning and served up a solo home run to one of the worst hitters in baseball this year, Joc Peterson, to tie the game up at 5-5 and blow his second straight save. 

"I'm trying to throw it down in away there, missed middle, and obviously, he did what he did," Williams said on the game-tying home run. 

Jazz had a productive groundout in the top of the 10th to advance the Manfred runner to third. Volpe followed that up with a walk to put runners at the corners with one out. For some reason, Boone didn't pinch-hit Ben Rice, and Wells bounced into a double play to end the top of the 10th. 

Jake Bird took over for Devin Williams in the bottom of the 10th inning. He picked up the first two outs, then intentionally walked Wyatt Langford, who hit a walk-off three-run home run off Clay Holmes last year. But Bird ended up serving up a walk-off three-run bomb to Josh Jung to end this one 8-5 as the Yankees lost their fourth straight. 

"Just kind of picking your poison there with the two outs in the open base," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on the decision to walk Langford. "Yeah, just you know, kind of a close decision there, but decided we wanted to face Jung." 

The Yankees have to bounce back tomorrow, but considering they have Will Warren facing off against Nathan Eovaldi, who has a 1.49 ERA on the season, their odds aren't looking great. The first pitch is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees just continue to find ways to lose, as they are now 0-6 in extra innings on the road this year. Williams can not be the closer anymore; he clearly can't handle the Bronx. He reminds me of Sonny Gray as a closer. Fried did not have his best stuff tonight, blowing a three-run lead, and now has a 4.74 ERA in his last seven starts. The offense did its job tonight as Goldy had three hits and launched a home run; Stanton also crushed a home run. Belli had two hits, including an RBI single. Rosario also had a couple of hits tonight, including an RBI single. The right-handed heavy lineup worked nicely against the left-handed Corbin. Weaver, Bednar, and Doval all looked great, but Williams and Bird completely blew it in the ninth and 10th innings. Thankfully, Judge should be back tomorrow, but will have to DH, Boone already said that Stanton won't be playing the outfield this series.  On to tomorrow, as the Yankees have to find a way to win, as their playoff hopes are hanging in the balance. If the Yankees miss the playoffs, Boone better be fired; this roster has way too much talent to be playing this poorly. 

"It's everyone. It takes all of us, and we have each other's backs," Fried said on what it's going to take to turn this season around. "Kind of, like I said, we just got to do it. It's just no more talking about it. We've got to get it done, and it starts tomorrow."