Ben Rice, Aaron Judge homer as Yankees open series with 4-2 win over Rangers

That marked the first time the Yankees have gone back-to-back this season.

• New York would add on against Leiter just a few batters later, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the top of the fourth with a towering solo homer of his own. The blast, which left the bat at a whopping 106.7 mph, traveled 406 feet deep into the seats in right and is Chisholm's third over his last seven games.

The lefty slugger has been scorching, hitting .370 with a 1.118 OPS over that span.

• Max Fried pitched well against a Rangers lineup that's struggled against lefties all season. He worked around hits in the first and second, before putting together his first clean inning after being handed the lead in the third. Fried gave up a leadoff hit in the fourth, but immediately erased him with his 38th career pickoff, the most in baseball since 2018.

The southpaw needed just six pitches to breeze his way through an seamless fifth. He gave up a leadoff single in the sixth, but Brandon Nimmo smoked a double-play ball right at Jose Caballero to help Fried end his night on a hight note. He gave up just four hits and walked two while striking out five over six scoreless innings.

Fried has now completed six innings in all but one of his seven outings on the season.

• Texas was able to get on the board against Camilo Doval in the bottom of the seventh, as Joc Pederson came off the bench and smashed a solo shot the other way to deep left-center. Doval's ERA is up to 6.97 and he's allowed homers in three of his last four outings.

• Tim Hill was a bit shaky, issuing a pair of walks in the eighth, but he was able to get Corey Seager to sharply groundout to second representing the tying run at the plate.

• David Bednar struggled in the ninth as well, as Texas brought in their second run of the game after a Chisholm error prolonged the inning. Ezequiel Duran came to the plate at the winning-run, but the Yankee closer got him to groundout and locked down his eighth save of the season.

• Judge reached safely in all four of his plate appearances on the night. He was hit by a pitch in the first, lifted the homer behind Rice in the third, then doubled his next two turns up. The captain is now hitting .294 with eight home runs, 12 RBI, and a 1.298 OPS over his last 15 games.

• Jasson Dominguez struck out then grounded out in his first two at-bats back in the big leagues, but he worked a full count before lacing a one out single the other way in the top of the sixth. With righties on the mound, the youngster is expected to start all three games this series.

• Ryan McMahon pushed his hitting streak to four games with a two out single against Leiter in the fourth.

Game MVP: Aaron Judge

The captain was right in the middle of things for New York, reaching four times in the victory.

Highlights

What's next

Two of the American League's top arms to start the season face-off, as Cam Schlittler (3-1, 1.77 ERA) takes the ball against Jacob deGrom (2-0, 2.13 ERA) on Tuesday at 8:05 p.m.