YANKS’ UNREAL RALLY IN 9TH
DIDI HR CAPS 6-RUN BURST TO BEAT AL’S BEST
Maybe the Yankees aren’t quite dead yet.
Staring at a four-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees stormed back to prevent a fourth straight loss with a pair of dramatic home runs from Brian McCann and Didi Gregorius to beat the Rangers, 9-7.
And instead of being left reeling, three games below .500 and 10 games out in the AL East, they came away with what Alex Rodriguez called “probably the biggest win of the season” thanks to a six-run ninth.
First, it was McCann, who injured his knee rounding the bases after a solo homer in the eighth but stayed in the game to clobber a three-run homer to tie it in the ninth off Sam Dyson.
That brought the Stadium crowd to life and after Starlin Castro walked, Gregorius hit another one out off of Dyson, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
It was the Yankees’ second walk-off homer in a week, after Castro beat the Rockies last Wednesday.
“In that situation, I’m looking for something I could hit,” Gregorius said. “I tried to hit a line drive and it went out.”
Similar things were said after Castro’s heroics against Colorado, but after a gruesome loss on Monday following a 3½-hour rain delay and a no-show defeat to Cole Hamels on Tuesday, the Yankees talked about playing with “more of a sense of urgency,” thanks to a meeting with manager Joe Girardi following Tuesday’s defeat.
So, for whatever it’s worth, Gregorius insisted the Yankees were ready to make a move up the standings.
“I’ll say the biggest is yet to come,” Gregorius said. “We’re a team that’s playing better. A lot of stuff is gonna happen and we’re gonna play better baseball from now on. There’s a lot more to come.’’
They’ll close out a homestand on Thursday before a 10-game road trip leading up to the AllStar break.
And after Masahiro Tanaka was knocked around and the offense stayed largely silent for most of the game, the Yankees seemed all but finished.
Girardi acknowledged the trouble his team was in before the game.
“As days tick away, you start to run out of time and you don’t want to bury yourself,” the manager said. “Baltimore is playing extremely well. Boston has run into a few bumps, but played well. Toronto has played well. You can’t mess around too long and expect to be there.”
A shaky outing from Tanaka, who once again struggled on regular rest, didn’t put them in a good position.
After surrendering six runs in six innings on Wednesday, Tanaka has a 5.28 ERA in seven starts on four days’ rest, while he’s got a 1.24 ERA in six outings on five days’ rest.
Tanaka said his stuff felt fine, but he was undone by several mistakes in a four-run third that included a three-run dou- ble by Nomar Mazara.
After Texas made it 7-2 in the eighth off Luis Cessa, who allowed just one run in three innings in relief of Tanaka, McCann’s solo shot got the Yankees within four runs.
Rob Refsnyder started the ninth with a single and Jacoby Ellsbury walked. After Refsnyder scored on an error committed on a Brett Gardner single, Alex Rodriguez lined out, bringing up McCann again.
The catcher has been dealing with patella tendinitis, but was able to catch, so he remained in the game and made the Rangers pay to lead up to Gregorius’ heroics.
“That’s a win we really had to fight for,” Girardi said. “We fought late. They should be excited and hopefully the emotion carries over.”