Trent Grisham laced a bases-clearing double during a six-run sixth inning as the New York Yankees rolled to a 9-2 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon.
The Yankees lost left fielder Jasson Dominguez on the first batter of the contest when he was injured crashing into the fence to catch a fly ball by Brandon Nimmo. Dominguez was placed in the concussion protocol and is getting an MRI on his left shoulder after he was carted off the field.
After New York’s Ryan McMahon loaded the bases on a walk in the sixth inning, that was upheld on ABS following a Texas challenge, Grisham laced a 1-1 sinker off Texas starter MacKenzie Gore (2-3) that fell in between left fielder Alejandro Osuna and center fielder Evan Carter. The ball rolled to the warning track in front of the Texas bullpen and the Yankees took a 4-2 lead.
Grisham’s hit knocked out Gore and he scored on a single by J.C. Escarra to left field off Jalen Beeks. Following a walk by Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge hit an RBI single to left field off Cole Winn and Cody Bellinger added an RBI singled to left for a 7-2 lead.
Bellinger also had an RBI triple in the first inning after Goldschmidt opened the contest with a triple.
The big inning gave New York its 16th win in the past 19 games and prevented them from losing a series for the first time since getting swept in a three-game series at Tampa Bay April 10-12.
Grisham had three hits and scored on a double by Max Schuemann in the seventh. McMahon contributed an RBI single in the eighth as the Yankees totaled 14 hits and went 7-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers was slated to start but an illness earlier this week delayed his preparation and his next start was moved to Monday in Baltimore.
Paul Blackburn started as an opener and stranded two in a 24-pitch opening inning. Brendan Beck followed with three-plus innings during his major league debut and Brent Headrick (3-0) got the final out of the sixth before the Yankees surged ahead.
Ezequiel Duran drove in both for runs as the Rangers lost for the 11th time in 17 games. Duran hit a game-tying homer off Beck in the third and his RBI groundout gave Texas a 2-1 lead in the fifth.
Gore was tagged for five runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings. The left-hander struck out three and walked three.
