Yankees Beat Rangers in Series Opener

Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

April 27, 2023

Yankees 4, Rangers 2

ARLINGTON, Tex. (Apr 27) — The Texas Rangers returned to Arlington with somewhat of a rude welcome as they lost to the New York Yankees by a score of 4–2 on Thursday. Solo home runs by DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, and Jose Trevino helped secure the victory for the Yankees. This most recent tally in the loss column stretches the Rangers’ losing streak to four, as they were swept in three earlier in the week by the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark. The good news for the Rangers is that they have a quick turnaround. The second game of this series is on Friday at 7:05 pm Central at Globe Life Field. It will be a battle of righties as Clarke Schmidt (0–2, 6.30 ERA) will start for the Yankees, and Jacob deGrom (2–0, 3.04 ERA) will get the ball for the Rangers.

Yankees Get Early Lead

With the game still scoreless in the top of the second, LeMahieu got things started with a solo homer to right. Torres, who was on deck at the time, seemed to draw inspiration from LeMahieu’s dinger. He promptly hit one of his own to center to make it 2–0 Yankees. Later on in the inning, they stretched their lead to 3–0. A single to left by Anthony Volpe brought home catcher and former Ranger Jose Trevino. Incidentally, Trevino was also responsible for the Yankees’ fourth run of the game thanks to a solo home run to left in the top of the ninth.

Rangers Make it Interesting

Despite trailing all evening, the Rangers managed to mount a bit of a comeback. In the bottom of the sixth, Jonah Heim grounded into a force out that plated Marcus Semien. Ezequiel Duran soon made it 3–2 with an infield single to third, driving in Robbie Grossman. Both of the Rangers’ runs were surrendered by Yankees starter Gerrit Cole, who pitched 6 2/3 innings. Along with the two runs, he gave up six hits, walked one, and struck out eight. Cole got the win for the Yankees in this one. That runs his record on the year to 5–0, with an ERA of 1.11. John King recorded the save (1).

Andrew Heaney’s Evening

Left-hander Andrew Heaney got the start for the Rangers on Thursday. Heaney suffered the loss (now 2-2) despite tossing his second quality start in as many outings (6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R-ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 2 HR, 2 HBP, 97 pitches/57 strikes). He overcame a three-run, 37-pitch second inning that opened with the back-to-back solo home runs by LeMahieu and Torres. Heaney retired 13 consecutive batters between a second-inning single to Anthony Volpe and a sixth-inning HBP of Oswald Peraza.

This marked the sixth straight quality start (6.0+ IP, 3-or-fewer ER) by a member of the Rangers’ rotation dating back to Heaney’s previous appearance on Saturday against the Oakland Athletics at Globe Life Field (6 IP, 2 R-ER). Heaney has gone 2-0 with a 2.05 ERA (5 ER/22 IP), 24 SO/8 BB, and .173 opp. BA over his last four starts after allowing 7 R-ER over 2 2/3 IP in his Rangers debut on April 4 against the Baltimore Orioles.

Aaron Judge Injury Report

Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge exited Thursday’s game in the fourth inning due to discomfort in his right hip. The issue, which is likely to keep Judge from playing some or all of the remaining three games, is also a repercussion of the awkward slide earlier in the week against the Minnesota Twins.

Judge batted in the first and second innings on Thursday, striking out swinging both times against Rangers starter Andrew Heaney. After the second strikeout, on a shoulder-high fastball, Judge moved his empty right hand close to his belt and grimaced for a moment before walking back to the dugout. He played his position for two more innings before being removed for Oswaldo Cabrera to start the bottom of the fourth.

Postgame Comments

In his postgame media session, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was asked what he noticed from Heaney’s outing. Bochy replied by saying, “He just made some mistakes. He hit a bump in the road in the second inning, but he reset and did a great job. He gave us a chance to win that game. We just couldn’t quite cash in, but he did a good job.” Bochy also commented on his team’s offensive approach against Gerrit Cole by saying, “I thought they battled hard. Obviously, you’re going to have your hands full when you face Cole, but we kept it a close game, which is what you want, especially in that situation.

Andrew Heaney also met with members of the media after the game. When asked what his thoughts on his outing were, he replied with, “I felt really good, outside of a few pitches there in the second inning. It was a long inning. The pitch to (DJ) LeMahieu was a pretty good one. It was probably not the right pitch to throw to him 2–0, and the pitch to Gleyber (Torres) was right down the middle. Obviously, he hit it well. Things snowballed after that, and that kind of frustrated me. But I eventually got out of it, and got things under control.”