MLB debuts aren’t always sunshine and rainbows, and expectations should always be tempered when a young player is suddenly donning a major league uniform. Cam Schlittler’s electric debut last season is a rarity, not an expectation.
Elmer Rodríguez held the Texas Rangers off the scoreboard for the first four innings, but his inability to throw enough strikes eventually bit him in the fifth, resulting in the Rangers taking a lead they would not relinquish. It didn’t help that the offense was shut out
for just the second time this season, allowing Nathan Eovaldi to throw his best start of the year in a 3-0 defeat to close out a 7-2 road trip.
It was a clean start for Eovaldi, who pitched around a one-out single by Ben Rice to sit down the top of the order in the first. For Rodríguez, he struggled with command, walking a pair, but perfectly located a 3-2 pitch to Josh Jung for what turned into a strike-em-out-throw-em-out for his first MLB strikeout in a scoreless first.
A weird throwing error by Jake Burger (which should’ve been charged to Eovaldi) allowed Jasson Domínguez to reach in the second, but he was stranded. Rodríguez gave up a two-out single to Kyle Higashioka, walked Alejandro Osuna, and allowed a single to Ezequiel Duran to suddenly load the bags in a long second inning, but he survived by getting Brandon Nimmo to fly out.
The two pitchers exchanged 1-2-3 innings in the third before the Yankees finally got multiple baserunners against Eovaldi in the fourth on a single by Cody Bellinger and a hit-by-pitch that wound up taking Domínguez out of the game with an apparent left elbow injury. J.C. Escarra got a chance to break the tie with two out, but grounded out to first.
Another 1-2-3 inning seemed to be settling things down for Rodríguez in the fourth, but things fell apart in the fifth. He plunked Osuna and walked Duran, putting the eight and nine hitters on base. Nimmo reached on an infield single that deflected off the glove of Rice to load the bases, and this time, the rookie couldn’t get out of it. A two-run single by Jung knocked him out of the game and gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
There’s a lot to unpack from this start for ERC (yes, he still likes being called that). He’s not some control wizard, but he’s generally regarded as being a strike thrower, but he was just a tick off today, missing all around the plate. He couldn’t get ahead enough to throw his curveball and slider in two-strike counts and leaned much more on his four-seamer than usual. It wasn’t a good start, but you can see why they’d rather throw him out there than Luis Gil.
Brent Headrick, whose elbow must be made of vibranium, was able to put out the rest of the fire behind Rodríguez, striking out Seager, getting a forceout out of Joc Pederson, and inducing a long flyout of Jake Burger. Nimmo seemed to have pulled a hamstring running to third on the Pederson grounder and was removed from the game.
Rice led off the sixth with a single off Eovaldi, but was erased by a line drive double play by Bellinger. The scorcher went 107.8 mph off the bat and had a .690 xBA. Not fun! Headrick and Jake Bird combined to get through the bottom half, 1-2-3.
Max Schuemann drew a walk against Eovaldi in his first Yankee plate appearance, and both he and Escarra (who had a hard lineout) both worked lengthy at-bats to drive up the pitch count of the two-time All-Star, but he finished off seven shutout innings in yet another strong start against the Yankees.
Bird stayed in after the seventh-inning stretch, and Duran greeted him with a double down the left-field line. Sam Haggerty, an underrated Yankee killer, lined an RBI single after two failed bunt attempts to make it 3-0. Tim Hill replaced Bird and continued to be a ground ball monster, inducing an inning-ending double play.
Jacob Latz was tasked with throwing the last two innings for the Rangers. Aside from another hit for Rice, he did the job to avoid the sweep for the home team. Rodríguez is saddled with the loss in his major league debut, the first Yankee to do so since Randy Vasquez on May 26, 2023.
After a Thursday off-day, the Yankees return home to begin a three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Friday at 7:05 on YES. It’s Will Warren against a pitcher to be determined for the O’s.
