Yankees rally past Rangers 7-4 for fifth straight win
- Davis Cornell
- May 5
- 4 min read
The Yankees took down the Rangers 7-4 to win their fifth straight game, improving to 25-11 on the season. Elmer Rodríguez made his second career start during a historic week for his family, following his cousins José Ortiz and Irad Ortiz Jr. finishing first and second in the Kentucky Derby. Cruz faced off against two-time Cy Young award winner Jacob deGrom.
It was announced today that, starting May 18, the Yankees will wear a customized John Sterling patch on their jerseys for the remainder of the season to pay tribute to the legendary play-by-play broadcaster.
“I think it's cool,” Jazz Chsiholm Jr. said. “He was here for a long time, and he represented the Yankees well.”
Rodríguez had a rough first inning, falling into a 3-0 hole. Joc Pederson kicked off the scoring with a sacrifice fly. Ezequiel Duran picked up an RBI single, and another run came across on a wild pitch.
Aaron Judge lined a double to right In the bottom of the frame. Then Cody Bellinger just missed a two-run bomb but did trot into second with an RBI double to make it a 3-1 ballgame.
In the bottom of the second, Ryan McMahon crushed a two-run bomb to tie the ballgame at three apiece.
After a tough first inning, Rodríguez settled down, working a scoreless second, third, and fourth innings. In the fifth inning, Rodríguez ran into trouble, giving up a pair of singles and walking a batter to load the bases with two out and end his night. Brent Headrick replaced Rodríguez and picked up a huge strikeout to strand the bases loaded and keep the game tied.
Final line for Rodríguez: 4.2 innings pitched, six hits allowed, three earned runs, walked four, and struck out two on 94 pitches. Rodríguez threw his sinker over half the time at 52%, the fastball 18%, the curvbeball 12%, the slider 10%, and the changeup 9%. Rodríguez 97.8 mph, sitting 95.3 on his heater, while inducing 12 swings and misses on the night.
“Obviously, the first inning wasn't the first inning I was trying to go for,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, just two walks to start a game is, I can't be doing that. Like, obviously, it gets me into trouble. I struggled a little bit in there, but I mean, after that, I just try to be simple, just go there, attack, don't try to do too much, and I feel like it worked better.”
Headrick came back out for the sixth and worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning with a couple of punchouts.
With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. crushed a no-doubt solo shot, his fourth home run of the year, giving the Yankees a 4-3 advantage.
Tim Hill took over for Headrick and picked up the first out, then gave up back-to-back singles. Fernando Cruz came in relief for Hill and picked up a punchout and induced a pop-up to strand runners at second and first.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, McMahon lined a single to left. José Caballero followed with a perfectly placed bunt single. Aaron Judge was then intentionally walked with two outs to load the bases for Belli. Belli lined a two-run double to right field to extend the Yankees' lead to 6-3.
Cruz came back out for the eighth inning and picked up the first out, then punked a batter, allowed a single, and walked a batter to load the bases. Yankees closer David Bednar got the call and struck out Corey Seager, then got Josh Jung to pop out to strand the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the Paul Goldschmidt sent a solo shot into the short porch in right to add an insurance run, making it 7-3.
The Rangers made it a 7-4 ballgame in the top of the ninth thanks to a Jake Burger RBI groundout. But that would be all as Bednar shut the door, picking up his 10th save of the season and extending the Yankees' win streak to five straight.
“Unbelievable game,” Aaron Boone said. “Just so many good at-bats to pull us back and take the lead.”
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Will Warren on the mound, facing off against former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi, who always seems to shut the Yankees down, including last Wednesday. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
My thoughts on the game: Rodríguez was decent; he settled in pretty nicely after a rough first inning. This will most likely be his last start in the big leagues for now, with Carlos Rodon slated to make his season debut Sunday after making his final rehab start tonight. Headrick picked up four huge outs and got out of a bases-loaded jam; his ERA is now down to 1.47. Hill struggled a bit tonight, allowing a couple of hits and recording only one out. But Cruz picked him up; his splitter was nasty tonight. But struggled in the eighth, loading the bases, leading to Bednar having to pick up a five-out save. Ben Rice was out of the lineup for the second game in a row; hopefully, he is back tomorrow. Belli had a great game with a couple of doubles and three RBIs; he is now hitting .283 with an .889 OPS. Jazz and Goldy each went deep. And McMahon had a great game, going 2-for-4 with a game-tying two-run bomb off deGrom. He has been heating up at the plate as of late. Nine hits and seven runs for the Yankees offense tonight, tagging deGrom for six runs. Just another great win all around. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees' offense will be tasked with getting to Eovaldi.
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