Rangers Come Up Short in New York: Yankees 5 Rangers 2

It was a cold and rainy day this afternoon at Yankee Stadium; the Rangers took on the Yankees for the second time this season. There were concerns about the game being rained out, but the teams were able to finish all nine. The Rangers offense refused to come out and play in the rain.

Derek Holland had a decent start and went 7.2 innings in the game. The Dutch Oven gave up eight hits and five runs. Holland had held the Yankees to only three runs early in the game, but allowed a two-run homer from Robinson Cano that put the game far out of reach. Holland allowed a two-run homer from Mark Teixera in the second, and the other run came on a sacrifice fly from Teixera.

The Rangers had seven hits and two walks in the game. The runners were spread out throughout the game, and Texas couldn’t string together enough to put more than two runs on the board. The only two runs came in the top of the eighth. Rafael Soriano came into the game and allowed a ground-rule double to Mitch Moreland. Julio Borbon grounded out to first to allow Moreland to move to third, and Ian Kinsler walked. Elvis Andrus hit a strong line drive single to right to score Moreland, and Michael Young picked up a single to score Kinsler. Needless to say Freddy Garcia pitched one heck of a game for the Yankees and the Rangers were not prepared.

Any momentum the Rangers had picked up in the eighth inning was sucked away by Mariano Rivera in the ninth. Rivera picked up his 6^th save of the season.

The positives in this game included Derek Holland. In the past we’ve seen Derek get frustrated after giving up early runs, today he remained composed and was able to pitch most of the game. Also Holland spared the use of the bullpen. Darren Oliver came in to get the last out of the eighth but aside from that Holland pitched the entire game.

Another positive comes tomorrow with Alexi Ogando, the Yankees have little experience against the fire-baller and puts the team in a good position. C.C. Sabathia takes the mound for the Yanks and it seems like the Rangers always come to play against the former Cy Young winner.

-Jonathan