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. Seager made it 6-0 with an RBI single.
Warren struck out seven and walked three. It was the first time in eight starts this season he permitted more than two earned runs.
Texas and New York succeeded on their first seven ABS challenges to calls by plate umpire Quinn Wolcott, then lost their final two.
MacKenzie Gore (2-2, 4.67 ERA) pitches the series finale Thursday afternoon for Texas against Ryan Weathers (2-2, 3.03) in a matchup of left-handers.
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