The last time the Texas Rangers took to the baseball diamond was May 4 — a 2-1 win in Philadelphia — as they had a travel day off on the 5th and then saw their games against the New York Yankees rained out on the 6th and 7th.
However, the rain stayed away on Mother’s Day in the Bronx, and Gleyber Torres ended the game for the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth with a walk-off homer, giving New York a 2-1 win and snapping the Rangers’ four-game winning streak.
The loss was the first game of a doubleheader on May 8. The game saw a pitching duel between Yankee right-hander Gerrit Cole and Texas righty Dane Dunning who beat the Braves in his last start.
Though neither pitcher would earn a decision in the contest, the two both pitched well and did so through six innings.
Dunning left the contest after his 100th pitch (59 for strikes), going six innings, allowing just two hits and one earned run while walking three and fanning five. Dunning lowered his ERA on the season to 3.38 with the effort.
Cole lasted 6.1 innings and allowed one earned run on five hits while walking just one batter and striking out 10. His only run allowed came on the last batter he faced when Kole Calhoun took him deep on Cole’s 114th pitch of the afternoon.
Calhoun’s homer was the first of the year for the 34-year-old outfielder. The home run also tied the game at 1-1, where it sat until the bottom of the ninth.
The Rangers got a scoreless bottom of the eighth off the combination of relievers Matt Bush, who faced two batters, and Dennis Santana. Santana got Yankee Aaron Judge to fly out to the centerfield on a 2-1 pitch with runners on second and third.
The Ranger failed to mount any offense in the top ninth, setting conditions for the Yankees in the bottom of the inning. Texas sent John King to the hill for the ninth inning. King only tossed four pitches before his fifth, a 92.3 MPH 3-1 sinker that was knocked into the rightfield stands for the walk-off win.
Torres’ walk-off homer was his seventh of his career, the most in the Majors since 2018, when he made his big-league debut. Torres made his debut in an All-Star season that year, finishing third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting.
“Gleyber’s seeing the ball really well off lefties right now. That’s a great swing,” Cole told MLB.com of his teammate’s home run. “We had some traffic on them … we just couldn’t push through. But I didn’t think we threw any at-bats away. We stayed locked in and obviously pushed the last one across, which got us the win.”
King suffered the loss, and his record evens out at 1-1.
The Rangers fell to 10-15 with the loss on a cloudy, 56-degree day. The Rangers will play a second game on May 8 against the Yankees, then close out the series with a third game in New York on May 9. The Rangers then head home for three-game sets against Kansas City and Boston.