Yankees Rebound From Sunday Disaster With Crisp Win Over Rangers

The Yankees shook off that nightmare loss on Sunday with a well-played victory Monday over the disappointing Rangers in the opener of a three-game set in Texas, and it also enabled them to remain a half-game ahead of the Orioles. Lets get to it.

Sept. 2: Yankees 8, Rangers 4

Good stuff Monday night from the Yankees, the kind of night we wish they would give us a little more often. They hit well, they pitched well (for the most part), they were sharp in the field, and the result was a therapeutic victory over Texas, a team that is just playing out the string and wondering why the defense of their World Series title has been so lame.

The only hiccup was Gerrit Cole’s exit in the bottom of the seventh as he grabbed at his right leg while he was warming up, stopping everyone’s heart for a few minutes, at least until the Yankees announced that he was suffering from a cramp in his calf.

Then again, we all know better, don’t we, when it comes to Yankees injuries? Until he’s back on the mound for his next start, it will be something to worry about because this team can’t afford to lose Cole. They survived not having him most of the first half of the season, but losing him now would be devastating.

“I wasn’t super concerned. I just didn’t think it was the right situation to keep trying to manipulate it out there,” Cole said. “I was able to kind of manage it for a couple innings until it was too much. I jogged out there (for the seventh inning), didn’t feel it, and I don’t feel it walking or moving around or anything. So, just for whatever reason, the follow through.”

Assuming he checks out OK Tuesday, and Aaron Boone seemed to think he’d be fine, then all was good as they won their 80th game of the season. However, there can’t be any let up because the Orioles are playing three games at home to start the week against the White Sox.

They won 13-3 on Monday, they will most certainly win the next two and finish the sweep, and that means if the Yankees want to remain in first place, they’ll have to keep winning against the Rangers.

If they play the way they did in this game, they’ll have a good chance of doing that, but how often have the Yankees been able to play two games in a row as clean as this, let alone three?

Here are my observations:

➤ Cole struggled a little early in the game. He needed 20 pitches in the first as he allowed a single and a walk but was able to escape without allowing a run. And then in the third he gave up two hits including an RBI double to Josh Smith that cut the Yankees lead to 2-1. Thereafter, he was excellent as he retired the last nine men he faced, so in his six innings he allowed just the one run on four hits and a walk while striking out nine on 82 pitches.

➤ Cole has now allowed three runs or fewer in six straight starts, a stretch in which he has a 1.85 ERA. “I thought his fastball was really good, cutter was good tonight, spun the ball well,” Boone said. “I thought his stuff was really good tonight, starting with the heater.”

➤ As for the bullpen, well, not great, but when is it ever? Luke Weaver served up a two-run homer to Wyatt Lankford in the seventh, and after Tim Hill gave up a single in the ninth, Boone brought in Clay Holmes with a five-run lead. It was understandable because Holmes had thrown just eight pitches in the previous five days, so he needed some work. Of course, that only meant the game got a little too interesting.

➤ Holmes immediately allowed a double and a run-scoring grounder that cut the Yankees lead to 8-4, then a two-out walk to the No. 9 hitter Leody Taveras which is always just what you want, right? That brought the top of the Rangers order into play and luckily, Gleyber Torres made a great snag on a one-hopper up the middle by Marcus Semien which saved two runs and ended the game. Had that gotten through, dangerous Corey Seager would have batted as the potential tying run. Holmes is just a never-ending irritant for this team.

➤ On offense, the Yankees pounded out 12 hits as everyone had at least one except Austin Wells, while eight different men scored runs, the only guy who didn’t being Anthony Rizzo. The first two runs scored in the third as Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo both singled, and they scored on Torres’ two-run double to left-center. Verdugo surely hears the screaming for Jasson Dominguez because in his last nine games he’s hitting .353, though 10 of his 12 hits have been singles and he has only one homer and two RBI. Still, that’s better than grounding out to second every at bat.

➤ It was still 2-1 in the sixth when the Yankees erupted for five runs. Torres and Juan Soto singled and Aaron Judge ripped an RBI double which ended the night of Rangers rookie Jack Leiter, the son of former Yankee Al Leiter, cousin of Yankees reliever Mark Leiter, and former high school teammate of Volpe. This was just his fifth MLB start and it’s been a rocky beginning as his ERA soared to 11.78.

➤ Chase Anderson relieved for Texas and he did a fine impersonation of the Yankees bullpen. He hit Wells with a pitch, struck out Giancarlo Stanton, but then gave up an RBI single to Jazz Chisholm that made it 4-1. Rizzo blooped a ground-rule double that pushed across two runs, and a wild pitch sent Chisholm to make it 7-1.

➤ The final run came on Stanton’s homer in the eighth. That’s 25 this season and he’s now the only active player in MLB who has hit at least that many in 10 seasons. “It’s pretty cool, something to add to whatever I can come up with in this career,” Stanton said. “But as long as it helps us win, that’s what’s most important right now.”

➤ Torres had three hits and he’s now batting .297 since he went back into the leadoff spot 16 games ago. “It’s just setting the tone, that’s the mentality I have (leading off),” said Torres. “I try to get a really good at-bat, see more pitches than normal and the other guys behind me can do their job. If I have a really good at-bat, get myself on base, I know somebody can drive me in, so that’s the plan right now.

➤ Chisholm had two hits, stole two bases, and since coming to the Yankees he’s hitting .333 with 10 steals, nine homers and 15 RBI.

➤ Clarke Schmidt pronounced himself ready to return to the Yankees, but of course, that won’t be up to him. He threw another rehab game, this one at Double-A Somerset, and he went 4.2 innings and allowed two runs on three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. Enough is enough and Schmidt has to be reinstated this week because Will Warren is back in Scranton and there’s no way that guy can pitch again this season for the Yankees.