Arlington, TX, United States (AHN Sports) – Curtis Granderson hit two home runs and rookie pitcher Ivan Nova delivered a gem of an outing to lift the New York Yankees to a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers Friday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
Granderson went deep in both the first and seventh innings, each time into the upper deck, and added three RBI for the American League East-leading Yankees, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Granderson now has 10 home runs on the year, which leads the AL.
For the Rangers, who didn’t get back in town until 6 am after a 3-1 loss at Seattle Thursday night and fell out of first place in the AL West for the first time since April 21, it was their ninth loss in their last 12 contests.
It was the first meeting here since the Rangers defeated the Yankees in Game 6 of the ALCS back on Oct. 22, en route to their first World Series appearance.
Nova (3-2) was outstanding, taking a one-hitting into the sixth inning and keeping the Rangers off balance all night, tossing a career-high 7.1 innings, allowing one unearned run on just two hits while striking out one and walking one.
After Rafael Soriano relieved Nova, Julio Borbon drove home Mike Napoli with a single to right field to snap the shutout and pull to within 4-1.
Texas starter Matt Harrison (3-4) struggled early, surrendering three runs in the first two innings, but rebounded to retire 13 of the next 15 batters, finishing with just three earned runs allowed on four hits, while walking five and fanning three.
The Yankees continued their early-inning success, which has seen them outscore their opponents 55-21 through the first two innings this season, by bolting out to a 3-0 lead.
After Derek Jeter led off the contest with a bloop single to right, Granderson launched a blast into the upper deck in right-center field to give the Yankees a very early 2-0 lead.
Harrison got into more trouble in the second inning, walking the first two batters. Then, one out later, after stopping Jeter’s hard grounder at the mound, Harrison proceeded to toss the ball away into right field, allowing Russell Martin to score from second.
To his credit, though, after walking Granderson to load the bases with one out, Harrison retired former Rangers Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez in succession to minimize the damage.
Harrison settled down after that, retiring 10 in a row before Rodriguez singled in the fifth, but still lost his fourth straight start.
Reliever Ryan Tucker took over in the seventh and surrendered Granderson’s second of the night, a one-out solo shot to right.
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