Just when it looked like the Yankees were going to lose their third game in a row to Texas, and fourth overall, they pull off a rare comeback win in the bottom of the ninth on Thursday night. It wasn’t rare because it was a walk-off, it was rare because it was first time since at least 1930 that the Yankees hit a game-tying home run when trailing by more than three runs in the ninth inning and then hit a walk-off home run to win game.
Masahiro Tanaka had a rough night on the mound against the Rangers who tagged him for six runs on eight hits in six innings. He was not fooling anyone, especially during Texas’s big third inning when they scored four runs. The big blow was Nomar Mazara’s three-run double. Mazara scored the Rangers’ fourth run on a Prince Fielder RBI single. Tanaka also gave up a run in the first on an RBI single by Elvis Andrus and a run in the sixth on a solo shot by Rougned Odor.
It looked like the Yankees’ offense was going to have another unforgettable night at the dish, with two of their runs coming via the solo home run—one by Chase Headley in the second and another by Brian McCann in the eighth—and a sacrifice fly by Headley in the sixth.
Then the bottom of the ninth happened.
Rob Refsnyder started things off with single and was followed by a Jacoby Ellsbury walk. Texas went to their bullpen and called upon Sam Dyson to end the game. And he did, but not in the way manager Jeff Bannister would want. Brett Gardner hit a single which scored Refsnyder, Alex Rodriguez lined out to Odor, but luckily the runners weren’t far enough off the bases for Texas to get more than one out. Then McCann, who homered and seemed to tweak his knee while running the bases in the eighth, stepped in and hit a Dyson fastball into Section 104 to tie the game at seven.
And the Yankees weren’t done.
Starlin Castro worked a five-pitch walk which paved the way for this:
The Yankees win! *insert John Sterling’s histrionics* The Yankees win!
The Play: McCann’s Game-Tying Three-Run Home Run WPA .479
Top Performers
Rangers: Mazara 1-5, but it was a big one with three RBI
Yankees: McCann 2-3, two home runs, two walks, four RBI and two runs scored
Notes
–McCann has patellar tendonitis in his left knee and he said after that game that he’s had it for a while. It just happened to flare up in the eighth when he was rounding the bases.
—Dyson had only blown one save this season before Thursday’s ninth inning and it occurred more than two months ago. And the four earned runs the Yankees scored off Dyson during their epic comeback were as many as he had allowed in his last 26 relief appearances combined. Amazing.
Photo credit: Noah K. Murray / USA TODAY Sports