Unlikely home runs overshadow pitchers
Darvish, Kuroda long gone when Suzuki hits walk-off
NEW YORK — A few innings after a matchup between Japanese aces Yu Darvish and Hiroki Kuroda was spoiled by five home runs, Ichiro Suzuki finished off Texas with a long ball of his own.
Suzuki homered off Tanner Scheppers with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting the New York Yankees to a 4-3 victory Tuesday over the Rangers.
“Sometimes it’s tough to score runs when you’re not hitting home runs,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We got enough tonight.”
Suzuki’s drive to right-center was the Yankees’ fourth home run of the game, three coming off Darvish. New York improved to 4-3 on a homestand that ends after two more games against the Rangers.
“It was just the wrong pitch at the wrong time,” Scheppers said. “I probably showed him too many fastballs in that at-bat.”
The Bronx Bombers were coming off a stretch in which they hit just four homers in 15 games, going 6-9. Other than Travis Hafner on Tuesday, the contributions came from some unlikely sources.
Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix also homered off Darvish, who hasn’t won in seven starts. Suzuki’s drive was his fourth of the year.
Texas also had an unlikely power source: No. 9 hitter Leonys Martin connected twice off Kuroda.
Mariano Rivera (1-1) worked a scoreless ninth for New York, which ended the Rangers’ fivegame winning streak.
Scheppers (5-1) pitched a perfect eighth before being touched up by Suzuki in New York’s first walk-off win this year.
The anticipated matchup between Darvish and Kuroda, Japanese aces with ERAs under 3.00, fizzled on a hot and sticky night when a four-inning stretch produced five home runs.
The 11th major league matchup between starters from Japan got started sharply. Even when the Yankees loaded the bases in the first on three straight singles just missed by leaping infielders, Darvish easily got out of the jam with a strikeout and a grounder.
Martin started the home runs with a shot a couple of rows back in the short right-field porch.
Hafner led off the bottom half of the fourth inning with a long ball into the New York bullpen. Martin started the fifth with his second shot of the night.
Gardner led off the Yankees’ half of the fifth with a drive deep into the seats in right field. Nix hit a soaring fly to left field in the sixth inning that cleared the wall by several rows, snapping his homerless string at 202 at-bats.