Nathan Eovaldi stymied the Yankees for the second time in a week

Unlike the first inning, Warren couldn’t contain the damage. He left what was supposed to be a back foot sweeper to Evan Carter over the plate. Carter did not miss. His two-run shot extended the Texas lead to 4-0. After only surrendering four home runs in his first 37.2 innings, Warren allowed two in fewer than four frames tonight. Regression to the mean. Bah.

Warren walked two more Rangers in the fourth and, lo and behold, two more runs scored. A sacrifice fly and a single put the Yanks in a 6-0 hole. Warren managed to get out of the fourth but that was the end of the road in what was easily his worst start of the season. His command just wasn’t there tonight, uncharacteristically walking opponents and missing badly on the pitch to Carter. Yerry De los Santos, recently recalled to the Bronx, came on in relief to begin the fifth.

Meanwhile, Eovaldi continued to annihilate the Yankees. After Bellinger’s first inning single, no Yankees reached base except Jose Caballero, who took a curveball off the elbow, only to promptly be erased by a double play ground ball from Trent Grisham. Finally, in the bottom of the fifth, Austin Wells poked a single to left field for the Yanks’ second knock of the night. He advanced no further, and Eovaldi was through five with only 63 pitches.

The Yanks got on the board in the sixth, thanks to the prodigious power of Aaron Judge. The Captain drove a belt-high sinker to center field for his 15th home run of the season. As Joe Girardi noted in the booth, Judge also tied Paul O’Neill on the Yankee career RBI leaderboard. Judge’s blast mercifully ended Eovaldi’s scoreless streak against the Yankees at 21.2 innings. Please go away, Eovaldi.

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De los Santos was a godsend for Aaron Boone, throwing 3.1 scoreless innings. Alas, as Michael Kay and Girardi pointed out, when a long guy throws that many innings and pitches (54), a one-way ticket back to Triple-A is the usual reward. At any rate, De los Santos’ performance kept Boone from having to burn through his entire bullpen. Similarly, Ryan Yarbrough covered the final five out so, despite Warren only going four, the vast majority of the bullpen got the night off.

Eovaldi stayed on the mound for Texas, and kept dominating the Yankee lineup. When his night finally ended after the eighth, it meant he’d thrown 15 innings of one-run ball against New York in the last week. Thank the baseball gods he’s in the AL West. Jacob Latz came on for the final three outs, snapping the Yankees’ five-game winning streak.

Join us tomorrow for the rubber game of this three-game set. Ryan Weathers faces MacKenzie Gore. First pitch at 12:35 pm ET.

Box Score