ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton reached 25 homers for the 10th time in his big league career, Gerrit Cole struck out nine over six innings before his right calf cramped and the New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 8-4 on Monday night.
Gleyber Torres had three hits for the AL-leading Yankees, including a two-run double in the third inning that put them ahead to stay. Anthony Rizzo had a two-run double in their five-run sixth inning after Aaron Judge doubled for his MLB-best 124th RBI.
Before his last warmup pitch ahead of the seventh, Cole (6-3) lifted his right leg and tried to stretch. The Yankees ace and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner bent twice, threw the warmup, then hopped and signaled to the bench. Manager Aaron Boone and director of sports medicine Michael Shuck went to mound.
Cole, who turns 34 on Sunday, began this season on the 60-day injured list because of nerve irritation and edema in his throwing elbow during spring training. The right-hander didn’t make his season debut until June 19.
Stanton homered to straightaway center leading off the eighth. He is the only active MLB player with 10 seasons of at least 25 homers.
The Yankees (80-58) remained a half-game ahead of Baltimore in the AL East. They had lost four of their previous five games.
With two on and two outs in the ninth, second baseman Gleyber Torres made a diving backhand stop behind the base on Marcus Semien’s grounder and threw to first for the out.
Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo, the bottom two batters in the Yankees lineup, had one-out singles in the third inning before Torres doubled for a 2-0 lead. Rookie right-hander Jack Leiter ended that inning when he struck out MLB home run leader Judge, who swung at and missed an 84 mph curveball.
Leiter (0-2) was pulled after Judge’s RBI double in the sixth that made it 3-1, and was the third consecutive hit to start that inning. Leiter struck out two and was charged with five runs.
Volpe and Leiter were high school teammates and part a state championship in 2019 at Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey. Both were first-round draft picks, Volpe by the Yankees that year and Leiter by Texas in 2021 after he went to Vanderbilt.
Leiter’s father, Al, played for the Yankees during his first three big league seasons (1987-89) and his last (2005). His cousin, Mark Leiter Jr., is a Yankees reliever.
The Yankees led 7-1 when Cole left the game. Luke Weaver took over, immediately allowing a single to Josh Jung and a homer to Wyatt Langford.
Semien scored from first base on Josh Smith’s two-out double in the third, which came between strikeouts by sluggers Corey Seager and Adolis García.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: C Austin Wells stayed in the game after getting hit on a hand by a pitch while batting in the sixth…. RHP Luis Gil (lower back strain) is expected to rejoin the rotation later this week. Gil (12-6, 3.39 ERA), whose last start for New York was on Aug. 20, threw 80 pitches in 3 2/3 innings in a rehab game for Double-A Somerset on Sunday. “I watched it. It was OK. Stuff was good, the swing-and-miss was there,” Boone said.
Rangers: Cy Young Award winners Jacob deGrom (elbow surgery rehab) and Max Scherzer (shoulder fatigue/nerve issue) are both scheduled to make rehab starts Saturday. While deGrom is set to pitch for Double-A Frisco, he said there could be the option that night of making his first start for the Rangers since April 28, 2023. The plan is for Scherzer to pitch for Triple-A Round Rock in Las Vegas.
UP NEXT
A matchup of left-handers in the middle game of the series Tuesday night. Carlos Rodón (14-9, 4.31 ERA) pitches for the Yankees while Andrew Heaney (4-13, 3.95), who has allowed only one run over 10 innings in his last two starts, starts for Texas.
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