Rangers' comeback magic fades vs. Yankees

May 19th, 2021

ARLINGTON -- All season, the Rangers have made comeback victories a brand for the club’s resilience as an underdog. But they were on the opposite end of the comeback win on Tuesday night, when the Yankees put up a five-spot in the fourth inning to beat Texas, 7-4, at Globe Life Field.

Texas is now 4-7 in one-run games and 5-5 in two-run games, and this is also the club’s 10th loss after leading at any point during the game.

The game looked to be in the Rangers’ favor as they hopped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning with RBI hits from and . Solak went 2-for-4 with a home run in the fifth inning, but the Rangers only had one more hit after that.

The offense dominated against Yankees starter Jameson Taillon, totaling six hits, two walks and all four runs off him. New York’s bullpen mowed down the Rangers’ lineup, allowing one walk and one hit through the final 4 2/3 frames.

“Their bullpen is really good, and we knew that,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “We knew Taillon was the guy that we probably needed to beat. Once we get into the meat of their bullpen, it's really tough. These guys have really good arms, and we really couldn't get much going against them.”

Before the Yankees’ bullpen shut down the Rangers, a strong start from Texas pitcher quickly turned sour in the fourth. The Yankees sent 10 batters to the plate that inning, notching six hits and a walk to reverse any momentum the Rangers had after their three-run third.

Foltynewicz started with three scoreless innings, but his control and velocity lagged in the fourth. Every Yankees hit that inning had an exit velocity of 90.8 mph or higher as their batters consistently scattered line drives all over the field.

Foltynewicz said he felt like his command was off all night, but it was just in the fourth inning and the second time through the order that Yankees hitters started to show patience and force him into making mistakes.

“I didn't really feel like I had it the whole game,” Foltynewicz said. “You can see some of the pitches [early on], I'm almost missing all the way across the zone but they're still swinging out. It's like they're patient but they’re aggressive at the same time, so it's a good mix over there.”

The right-hander said neither his fastball nor offspeed pitches were working effectively, and a lot of his offerings ended up directly over the plate for the Yankees to hit. Because of that, Foltynewicz says he felt like he was battling himself along with the opponent. He said he felt like he got “too cute” with some of the two-strike pitches in the fourth inning.

“I try to just keep the guys in it as best as possible,” Foltynewicz said. “Especially against a team like this, when they gave me three runs, I gave them right back to them, it’s kind of embarrassing on my part. It was just a tough one, but I was just battling the best I could.”