New York Yankees Blow 9th Inning Lead, Lose 9-6 to Rangers

The New York Yankees dropped the series opener against the Texas Rangers 9-6 Monday, blowing a ninth inning lead after a three and a half hour rain delay.

Ivan Nova was on the hill for the New York Yankees Monday and continued his recent string of ugly starts, allowing four runs on six hits in his five innings of work. He raised his season ERA to 5.32 (5.07 FIP) and has a 6.92 ERA in his last seven appearances. The solo shot he allowed to Ian Desmond in the first gave him ten straight starts with a home run allowed.

Will this be the final straw that gets Nova removed from the Yankees rotation? Probably not, but we can dream. On a completely unrelated note, Chad Green threw six scoreless innings for the Railriders Monday night, striking out six and allowing just four baserunners. At the very least, it’s nice to know Green is lined up to make Nova’s next start if needed.

The two teams traded blows back and forth in the early going, with five lead changes in five innings to start the game. The Yankees complete absence of power in 2016 continued Monday. While the offense racked up 12 hits in the first six innings, every one of them was a single. They did flash a little pop in the seventh with a solo shot by Mark Teixeira to lead off the inning, followed by a double by Didi Gregorius, but those were their only extra base hits all night.

Richard Bleier and Dellin Betances each provided the Yankees with a perfect inning of relief to protect their slim 5-4 lead. After Tex’s homer in the seventh, Andrew Miller allowed a rare homer to lefty Roughned Odor to bring New York’s lead back to one run in the eighth.

With the rain that had spattered players all evening growing in intensity in the ninth, Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman walked Robinson Chirinos to lead off the ninth inning and then fell behind Shin-Soo Choo 3-1. Manager Joe Girardi shrewdly chose this moment to complain about the conditions, which obviously didn’t go over great with the Rangers staff, who had pitched through a similar deluge in the bottom of the eighth.

Girardi’s ploy ended up backfiring, because rather than calling the game, the two team’s ended up resuming play after a three hour and thirty five minute rain delay, this time with Kirby Yates rather than Chapman on the mound. After striking out Choo, Yates plunked both Ian Desmond and Nomar Mazara to load the bases. Adrian Beltre then came through with a clutch two RBI single to left. Yates hit one more batter for good measure, and then another two-run single to Elvis Andrus to remove the remaining suspense from the game.

For his part, Yates didn’t blame the weather for his poor performance, telling Chad Jennings of The Journal News, “I didn’t think it was bad at all. I wasn’t slipping and sliding. I thought I made some really good pitches, but unfortunately I made some bad ones and lost us the ballgame…It was very frustrating, especially the fact that I had two strikes on every guy I hit. We were one pitch away from winning a baseball game. Instead, we lose by three runs.”

The New York Yankees dropped the series opener against the Texas Rangers 9-6 Monday, blowing a ninth inning lead after a three and a half hour rain delay.

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