Eovaldi shuts down streaking Yankees again as Rangers win 6-1 to stop slide
NEW YORK (AP) — Nathan Eovaldi cooled off the New York Yankees for the second time in eight days, and the Texas Rangers got early home runs from Corey Seager and Evan Carter in a 6-1 victory Wednesday night. Aaron Judge hit his major league-high 15th homer for the Yankees, who had won five straight games and 15 of 17. But right-hander Will Warren (4-1) was tagged for six runs and seven hits while throwing 90 pitches over four innings, a rare clunker for a New York rotation that began the day leading the majors with a 2.
77 ERA. Eovaldi, on the other hand, struck out eight and walked none in eight efficient innings, firing 72 of his 101 pitches for strikes. Ezequiel Duran, a one-time Yankees farmhand, drove in two runs with a double and a sacrifice fly as Texas won for the third time in nine games.
The 36-year-old Eovaldi (4-4) allowed three hits against his former team after tossing seven innings of four-hit ball in a 3-0 win over New York on April 29 at home. Each splendid outing snapped a three-game slide for Texas. In between, the Yankees scored 46 runs while going 5-0 against the Orioles and Rangers.
New York had won eight in a row at home. Eovaldi became the first Rangers pitcher to last longer than seven innings this year and improved to 5-2 in eight starts against the Yankees with Texas (since 2023). Seager homered to the short porch in right field on a 3-0 fastball in the first.
Brandon Nimmo drew an eight-pitch walk leading off the third and scored from first base on Duran's double. With two outs, Carter sent a two-run drive off the facing of the second deck in right. Jake Burger's leadoff single and consecutive one-out walks by Warren led to Duran's bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the fourth.