Rangers build big lead, hang on to beat Yankees

Adrian Beltre, Shin-Soo Choo and Drew Robinson homered Sunday in the first four innings, but the Texas Rangers had to hang on at Yankee Stadium for a 7-6 victory after leading 7-0.

Matt Bush saved the day in the ninth, tossing a scoreless inning against the top of the New York Yankees’ lineup.

Nick Martinez was the winning pitcher even though he allowed four runs in the fifth after breezing through the first four innings. The Yankees closed to within one with a two-run seventh against Jose Leclerc, but Keone Kela and Bush kept the Yankees at bat.　

How Rangers hitters fared: They flourished when over the first four innings with Michael Pineda in the game. ... Delino DeShields got the Rangers going again, this time with a leadoff double. He scored two batters later on a single by Elvis Andrus for the game’s first run, and Adrian Beltre followed with a two-run homer. ... The blast was No. 448 over Beltre’s career. He’s one behind Jeff Bagwell and Vladimir Guerrero for 39th all time. ... A two-out walk by DeShields in the second kept the inning alive for Shin-Soo Choo, who launched a three-run homer for a 6-0 lead. ... Drew Robinson collected his first career hit in the fourth, a solo homer. The Rangers didn’t have another hit until he doubled to start the seventh. ... 　

How Rangers pitchers fared: Nick Martinez was cruising right along until wild pitch on a strike out that would have ended the fifth inning led to his undoing. ... He had tossed four scoreless innings and struck out Aaron Hicks, but a slider in the dirt skipped off Jonathan Lucroy and Hicks raced to first. ... Aaron Judge followed with an RBI single, and Gary Sanchez swatted a three-run homer. ... Martinez was done after the fifth, allowing four runs on six hits and a walk. He threw 88 pitches. ... Ernesto Frieri worked a scoreless sixth inning, but the Yankees got two more off Jose Leclerc in the seventh. ... Keone Kela pitched around a leadoff double for a scoreless eighth, and Matt Bush looked strong in the ninth.

This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Rangers build big lead, hang on to beat Yankees."