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In his eighth start of the season, Will Warren, who had been consistently strong with no more than two earned runs allowed in his previous seven games, surprisingly gave up three runs in just the third inning.
Prior to this game, Warren had never walked more than three batters in a single outing, but he matched this number before the fourth inning concluded.
The Yankees’ offense, known for its recent scoring prowess of at least seven runs in each of the last five games, was unexpectedly stifled, managing just one run on a total of three hits.
Despite leading the American League in walks, the Yankees failed to earn a single walk in eight innings against Nathan Eovaldi. The closest they came was a three-ball count during Trent Grisham’s initial at-bat.
For both Warren and the Yankees, Wednesday’s performance was an unusual blemish in an otherwise impressive start to the season.
Warren’s location was amiss and the Yankees’ offense missed plenty against Eovaldi in a 6-1 loss to the Rangers in front of 40,269 in The Bronx on a night that was pleasant before rain arrived late.
The Yankees (25-12) dropped just a third game in their past 18 and head Thursday afternoon’s rubber match with hopes of avoiding their first series defeat since that sweep in Tampa on April 10-12.
Warren allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks in four innings, swelling his ERA from 2.39 to 3.46 in less than 90 minutes. Every start matters for Warren, who is believed to be competing with Weathers to keep a rotation spot when Gerrit Cole returns in the next few weeks.
The young right-hander again had stuff good enough to swerve around bats, seven of his 12 outs coming from strikeouts, but he did not bait Rangers hitters to chase outside of the strike zone enough, watched as four strike calls were overturned through Texas challenges and fell behind in counts too many times, a problem that became apparent immediately.
In the first inning, Warren threw three straight balls to Corey Seager. He then grooved a 3-0 fastball that was reversed to the short porch, a solo home run that gave the Rangers a lead they would not return.
They added on from there. After an eight-pitch walk to Brandon Nimmo, whom Warren could not put away to begin the third, Ezequiel Duran drove an RBI double into left-center. Later in the inning, Evan Carter saw a 2-1 sweeper and hooked a two-run homer off the facing of the second deck in right.
An inning later, three of the first four batters reached — Andrew McCutchen and Nimmo on walks — before a Duran sacrifice fly and a well-placed Seager single up the middle became the last of the damage against Warren. Warren, who had allowed five earned runs in his past four starts, was pulled after the six-spot. Yerry De los Santos (3 ⅓ scoreless innings) impressed quickly in the hours after his summons from Triple-A.
The entirety of the Yankees’ offense was home run No. 15 for Aaron Judge in the sixth inning. Otherwise, Eovaldi — the former Yankee and frequent Yankee killer, entering with a 3.05 ERA in 25 games against the club — looked like vintage Eovaldi, throwing 72 of his 101 pitches for strikes and relying heavily on a splitter and curveball that the Yankees could not barrel up.