ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Cam Schlittler struck out eight over six scoreless innings in a duel with Texas ace Jacob deGrom, Aaron Judge homered in his third consecutive game and the New York Yankees held on for a 3-2 win over the Rangers on Tuesday night.
Judge scored from first base on Cody Bellinger’s first-inning double and Austin Wells had a solo homer in the seventh as the Yankees won for the 10th time in 11 games and secured consecutive series
victories in Texas by winning the first two against the Rangers after taking two of three in Houston.
Judge's shot leading off the ninth was his 12th, tying him with Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox for the major lead lead. It also was the difference in the game.
Yankees closer David Bednar gave up a run-scoring triple to Danny Jansen and an RBI single to Josh Jung after the ninth started with third baseman Ryan McMahon's throwing error. But then Bednar got Cory Seager to ground into a game-ending double play for his ninth save this season and second of the series.
Four of the first seven outs were strikeouts for Schlitter (4-1), and the other three were standout plays behind the right-hander.
New York reliever Fernando Cruz made a sliding stop of Joc Pederson's attempted sacrifice bunt with two on and nodody out in the eighth, and his bounced throw as the right-hander was falling on his back just beat a sliding Jung at third.
Cruz then struck out Jake Burger and pinch-hitter Ezequiel Duran — while throwing seven consecutive strikes — to end the inning.
Schlittler, who gave up three hits with a walk, allowed one or fewer earned runs for the fifth time in seven starts and lowered his ERA to 1.51. The 25-year-old has 49 strikeouts and five walks.
Judge singled with two outs in the first against deGrom (2-1), who allowed three hits and one run with five strikeouts in six innings. Bellinger's liner hit near the top of the wall in right, and Judge slid across home plate just as the relay throw was arriving.
The Yankees have a shot at an 8-1 trip with RHP Elmer Rodríguez set for his major league debut Wednesday against Rangers RHP Nathan Eovaldi (2-4, 5.79 ERA), a 15-year veteran.
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