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Like everything else this season, it hasn’t been easy for the Yankees, but they outlived the Rangers, 7-3, on Wednesday night in the Bronx, getting back into the playoff table.
Thanks to Toronto’s loss to Tampa Bay, the Yankees returned to second place among the AL wild cards by half a game.
Texas’ three-game sweep sets up a crazy end to the regular season. The Yankees are off Thursday, followed by nine games against the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays.
“What is heartwarming is that we are in control,” said manager Aaron Boone. “No matter what happened [Wednesday], we control things. It’s ours. It’s right in front of us. If we go out and play well, we’ll get to what we want. If we don’t, we go home. We don’t need anyone else’s help.
The Yankees showed their determination – after showing their flaws – on Wednesday.
After falling three points behind due to poor defense and a lack of timely strikes, the Yankees retaliated with seven unanswered points, gaining the advantage over Gleyber Torres’ RBI brace who led Joey Gallo with two outs in the eighth inning.
Torres then rushed home from second place for an insurance run when Texas second baseman Yonny Hernandez dropped a ground player from Gio Urshela. Gary Sanchez sidelined the game with a two-run homerun.
They won despite going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring earlier in the game and seemed determined to let the last-place Rangers slip away with a win.
Corey Kluber, who had six shutouts against Cleveland last Friday, was not so specific on this start. The right-hander allowed three runs in just 4 ¹ / ₃ of an inning, with the Rangers scoring single runs in the second, fourth and fifth.
On the other hand, the Yankees couldn’t face Texas southpaw Taylor Hearn in the first four innings (they dropped two in the second), before breaking through in the fifth.
Torres started the fifth with a walk and moved up to second on a single Urshela in the middle.
Kyle Higashioka netted a brace down the center that scored Torres and Urshela – who slipped through third baseman Phil Nevin’s ill-advised stop sign to make it 3-2.
Higashioka climbed to third place on a Brett Gardner Groundout.
With one out, DJ LeMahieu hit a flying ball to the right. Adolis Garcia caught it and put in a perfect home pitch to get Higashioka for the third out, keeping the Yankees down with a run.
A wild shot loaded with bases by Texas reliever Dennis Santana scored Aaron Judge to tie the game in the sixth.
Clay Holmes threw a scoreless seventh and the Yankees lost another chance late in the inning.
Higashioka started off with a simple bloop and was replaced by pinch runner Tyler Wade. Wade stole second place as Gardner breathed in the first out. With LeMahieu in place, Wade stole third place without a pitch. LeMahieu, however, then struck out and Anthony Rizzo flew to a shallow cross.
Chad Green threw a scoreless eighth goal before the Yankees took the lead late in the inning.
After Judge came out and Stanton pulled out sticks, Gallo scored a brace on the left in the eighth before Torres hit a brace on the right to make it 4-3. Sanchez, who came on after Higashioka was snatched, hit a home run to close the scoring.
Aroldis Chapman finished with a ninth 1-2-3.
Now the Yankees will be looking to end the regular season in a similar fashion against some of their toughest rivals.
“This is who we are fighting against, we are fighting for the same,” said Boone. “You shouldn’t want it any other way. We will find out [who’s the best]. When you fight for a few places [among] a few teams, the fact that you can sort things out mano to mano on the pitch, that’s how it should be. Hopefully we get to where we want to go playing some good baseball. “
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