Robbie Grossman went 3-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs as the Texas Rangers continued their four-game home series with a 5-2 win on Friday in Arlington, Texas, but the victory came under the pall of starting pitcher Jacob deGrom being pulled early for unspecified reasons.
deGrom pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings and gave up just one hit before his exit. Friday was the second game the two-time Cy Young Award-winning right-hander left this month, coming out after four innings April 17 at Kansas City with wrist soreness.
In his absence, Dane Dunning (2-0) pitched 3 1/3 innings and picked up the win. He rallied from giving up a run in each of the fifth and sixth innings to sit all three Yankees in just six pitches in the seventh inning.
Jonathan Hernandez struck out a batter in a scoreless eighth inning, and Will Smith picked up his third save of the season to help the Rangers close out the win — their first in five games — after jumping ahead early.
Texas scored all five of its runs off New York starter Clarke Schmidt (0-3). All five were earned.
Schmidt struck out eight but allowed 10 hits in his five innings of work, including Grossman’s two-run home run in the third that pushed the Rangers lead to 5-0.
The round-tripper scored Jonah Heim from second, immediately after Heim drove in Adolis Garcia with a double.
Heim and Garcia both went 2-for-4 on the night. Grossman’s three hits marked a single-game season-best.
With reigning American League Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge sitting out, the Yankees managed just five hits. Anthony Rizzo went 1-for-2 with a walk and scored a run on a sacrifice fly by Willie Calhoun in the sixth inning.
Calhoun finished 1-for-3. Kyle Higashioka, who also went 1-for-3, drove in Oswaldo Cabrera from second base in the fifth. Cabrera’s ground-rule double was his one hit of the night.
The teams face each other again Saturday after splitting the first two games in the series. Nathan Eovaldi is on the mound for Texas and rookie Jhony Brito starts for New York.
–Field Level Media
