Yankees Overcome Replacements to Mess With Texas

The Yankees played a 3-game midweek series at home against the Texas Rangers. Once again, they messed with Texas.

On Tuesday night, Elmer Rodríguez made his 2nd major league start. He didn't get out of the 5th inning, showing that he's not ready. Brent Headrick had to finish the 5th, and pitch the 6th. He ended up as the winning pitcher.

Starting out down 3-0, the Yankees got a run in the 1st inning, and Ryan McMahon tied it with a 2-run home run in the 2nd inning. Jazz Chisholm hit a home run in the 6th, and Cody Bellinger hit a 2-run double in the 7th. Paul Goldschmidt homered in the 8th, his 374th career home run. The Yankees won, 7-4.

Will Warren had been pitching surprisingly well, going 4-0, before Wednesday night. He simply didn't have it, giving up 6 runs in 4 innings. In contrast, the Rangers started Nathan Eovaldi, the starting pitcher that Brian Cashman gave up on after the 2016 season. Since returning to the majors in 2018, he has always driven the Yankees crazy. This time, he went 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, the run coming on a home run by Aaron Judge.

It was the 383rd of his career, passing Frank Howard, Jim Rice and Ryan Howard on the all-time list. Next up is Harold Baines with 384. But it wasn't enough: Rangers 6, Yankees 1.

The Wednesday afternoon game started out badly. Ben Rice missed another game with a bruised hand. Then, David Weathers had to be scratched as the starting pitcher due to illness. So Paul Blackburn, usually a reliever, started the game.

Then on the 1st play of the game, Jasson Domínguez made a great catch of a drive hit by former Met Brandon Nimmo. But he crashed into the left field wall, and will be on the Injured List for "at least a few weeks" after an MRI revealed a low-grade sprain of his left AC joint.

So Cody Bellinger was moved from right field to left field, Amed Rosario was moved from 3rd base to right field, and Ryan McMahon was put at 3rd base, replacing Domínguez in the 6th slot in the batting order. Judge was the DH, and the Yankees didn't want to give up the DH, so Judge didn't go to right field. And, since Rosario was playing 3rd instead of shortstop, Max Schuemann was playing shortstop instead of Anthony Volpe.

So now, the only Yankees in their preferred positions were Paul Goldschmidt at 1st base, Jazz Chisholm at 2nd base, and Trent Grisham in center field.

 And here's what Blackburn gave up: The aforementioned long fly ball, a walk to Ezequiel Duran, who was then caught stealing 2nd, a walk to Corey Seager, he hit Josh Jung with a pitch, and got Joc Pederson to ground out. He did not go back out for the 2nd inning: It was determined that he, too, was injured. So, without warning, this became a "bullpen game."

The new pitcher was Brendan Beck, making his major league debut. At the age of 27. And a half. Not a good sign: Most pitchers who are going to make it do so younger than that. He was born during the Yankees' 1998 American League Division Series win -- over the Rangers. He's a righthander from the San Diego area, and a Stanford graduate.

Wearing Number 89, he pitched 3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks, with 1 strikeout. Not a good performance. Basically, all he did was eat innings.

I can hear the late, great John Sterling now: "You know, Suzyn (Waldman), you just can't predict baseball." And I can also hear the late, great Phil Rizzuto: "I tell ya, Bill White, this is unbelievable, this is givin' me agita. Holy cow."

Fortunately, the Yankee bullpen did the job the rest of the way: Tim Hill, Headrick, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval pitched 5 scoreless innings.

And the Yankees unloaded the lumber. Goldschmidt and Bellinger both hit triples in the 1st inning, to make it 1-0 Yankees. Duran tied it with a home run in the 3rd, and gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead with an RBI groundout in the 4th.

Then came the bottom of the 6th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Bellinger led off with a walk. Then came a single by Rosario, a popup by Chisholm, a walk by McMahon, a double by Grisham, a strikeout by Schuemann, a single by J.C. Escarra, a walk by Goldschmidt, a single by Judge, and a single by Bellinger. 7-2 Yankees.

Schuemann, a 28-year-old utility infielder from Derek Jeter's hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan, played with the Athletics the last 2 seasons. He doubled home a run in the 7th. McMahon singled home a run in the 8th. Headrick was named the winning pitcher.

Despite a rough start, the Yankees won, 9-2, taking the series from the Rangers, and going 6-1 on the homestand. They are 26-12, half a game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, and tied with the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs for the best record in baseball.

Today, the Yankees called up Spencer Jones, their 6-foot-7 slugging prospect, to replace Domínguez on the roster. And they have gone on a roadtrip, starting with a weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Come on you Bombers!