The Yankees trailed 2-1 going into the sixth inning, burning through three relievers already and watching MacKenzie Gore keep things locked up from the mound. Then Trent Grisham hit a line drive to left and the whole thing opened up.
New York beat Texas 9-2 at the Stadium on Thursday afternoon, erasing a two-run deficit with a six-run burst in the sixth that turned a tight, slightly uncomfortable game into a series win. The Yankees are 26-12 -- still first in the AL East, still a game up on Tampa Bay (who, for the record, have now won six straight and are very much paying attention).
The Sixth Inning Did It
It didn't look like a six-run inning at first. Cody Bellinger walked to start the sixth. Amed Rosario singled to left, moving him to second. So far, so good. Then Jazz Chisholm Jr. popped into an infield fly rule with nobody out -- the kind of at-bat that can kill a rally stone dead before it starts.
Ryan McMahon worked his count to 3-2. Rangers catcher Danny Jansen challenged the ball-four call through the automated ball-strike review system, thinking the pitch caught the zone. The system disagreed. McMahon walked, bases loaded.
Grisham hit a sharp line drive to left. It got past Alejandro Osuna. Bellinger scored. Rosario scored. McMahon scored. A three-run double, just like that -- a +29.2% win probability swing, the single biggest play in the game.
The inning wasn't close to done. J.C. Escarra singled to left, scoring Grisham. Aaron Judge lined one through for an RBI single, scoring Escarra. Bellinger punched a single up the left side to bring home Paul Goldschmidt. Six runs. Gore, Jalen Beeks, and Cole Winn all got touched. It wasn't an elegant sixth inning -- just a persistent, relentless one.
Trent Grisham Earned This
Grisham went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and all three RBI on that one double. He's been doing a lot of the quieter, less-celebrated work on this team, and Thursday it was anything but quiet. The WPA leader by a mile, the run that changed the shape of the whole afternoon.
Bellinger had a strong day too, and deserves more than a footnote. He went 3-for-4 with a walk -- his third triple of the season in the first inning plated Goldschmidt to give the Yankees an early lead, and he crossed the plate for the final run in the eighth. Two runs scored, two RBI. He was in the middle of everything.
How the First Inning Went
Paul Goldschmidt opened the game by tripling off Gore (his first triple of the year), taking third with nobody out. Judge lined out to Josh Jung at third -- which, if you're Goldschmidt, is a very bad time to be standing on third base. But Bellinger was up next, ripped a line drive to right, and Goldschmidt scored easily. Yankees 1, Rangers 0 before half the crowd had settled into their seats.
Paul Blackburn Did Not Last Long
One inning. Blackburn walked two, hit Jung, and somehow escaped without a run scored -- Ezequiel Duran got caught stealing, Joc Pederson grounded out, and the inning quietly ended with the scoreboard intact. But the skipper had seen enough. (Can't really blame him. Two walks and a hit batter in the first inning of a game you're supposed to be starting is a red flag regardless of the zero on the board.)
Brendan Beck came on and handled three solid innings, then Duran tagged him for a 374-foot solo shot in the third that tied it 1-1. The Rangers scratched out another run in the fifth when Osuna scored on a Duran groundout, and that's how it stood until the sixth -- New York down one and looking a little stuck.
After Beck, Tim Hill, Brent Headrick, Jake Bird, and Camilo Doval finished it off. Headrick got the win at 3-0. Clean inning and a third, nothing allowed.
The Series Belongs to New York
Yankees won Game 1 of this series 7-4, dropped the middle game 1-6, and took the rubber match by seven. That's how you handle a series you can't afford to lose -- you make sure you get the finale.
The Rays are 24-12 now and won't stop. The margin's one game. But this team hit 14 times Thursday, found six runs in one inning, and didn't give Texas a thing after the fifth.
Go win the next one too.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
