Clay Holmes allows walk-off grand slam in Yankees' 7-4 loss to Rangers

Clay Holmes allows walk-off grand slam in Yankees’ 7-4 loss to Rangers

Clay Holmes blew his 11th save of the season as the Yankees fell 7-4 to the Rangers on Tuesday night in Arlington.

The Yankees (80-59) are now 0.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles, who won earlier in the evening, for first place in the AL East.

Here are the takeaways…

-While Holmes’ blown save is the story, the Yankees bullpen just wasn’t as sharp behind Carlos Rodon on Tuesday. Tommy Kahnle pitched a scoreless seventh and started the eighth by getting Josh Smith to hit a chopper up the first base line. DJ LeMahieu — playing in his first game since last Wednesday — dropped the ball, allowing the leadoff hitter to reach. Jake Cousins was brought in to stop any momentum but Marcus Semien hit a weak grounder to the right side where Gleyber Torres wasn’t — he was shading up the middle — to put the first two runners on. After Wyatt Langford struck out, Jung singled under Torres’ glove to cut the Yankees lead to 4-2. After walking the bases loaded, Aaron Boone brought in Tim Hill to try and stop the bleeding. Nate Lowe flied out to center to bring in the third Rangers run. Hill would get Jonah Heim to strike out swinging to end the inning.

Holmes started the ninth and it was the full Holmes experience, down to the walks and inability to get a strikeout when needed. After getting a groundout to start, Carson Kelly singled before the Yanks’ closer walked Smith and Semien to load the bases for Langford. The youngster was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts entering the at-bat when he launched a 3-2 86 mph slider that hung over the heart of the plate 407 feet into the left-field seats to win the game for Texas.

-It was a shame too, as Rodon was on his game, not allowing a hit through the first three innings with four strikeouts. But Jung got the team’s first hit and run in the fourth with a leadoff solo shot off the southpaw. It was the only blemish on Rodon’s ledger as he struck out a season-high 11 batters in his six innings of work.

Rodon threw 99 pitches (66 strikes) allowing the one run on one hit and two walks.

-After Andrew Heaney shut down the Yankees offense through five innings of three-hit ball — to go along with eight strikeouts — it looked as if Rodon would be the tough-luck loser but the Yankees offense finally woke up in the seventh inning. Against the Rangers bullpen, back-to-back singles by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe got the Yankees going. A balk by Jose LeClerc moved the runners up with no outs and Jose Trevino — in his first start in five games — grounded out to tie the game at 1-1. Alex Verdugo then came through with a one-out single over the head of the drawn-in second baseman to put the Yankees ahead.

Verdugo finished 1-for-4 with a walk and is now 13 for his last 37.

-Chisholm and Volpe would set the Yankees up again in the eighth. The Yankees third baseman beat out a groundball for an infield single to load the bases with two outs before Volpe singled up the middle to plate two and give New York some much-needed insurance runs. Volpe finished 2-for-4 and is now 12 for his last 29.

-There was an odd moment in the sixth when Heaney was called for a pitch-clock violation to put the count on Juan Soto at 2-0. Heaney argued with the umps as he didn’t like the call, and the left-hander hit Soto with the very next pitch. Soto stared at the Rangers starter but nothing came of it, but Heaney was pulled by manager Bruce Bochy immediately.

Soto finished 0-for-3 with the HBP a walk and a run while Aaron Judge went 1-for-5 with a run. He’s now gone homerless in eight straight games, the third time that has happened this season — first since July.

Torres went 2-for-4 with a walk, giving the Yankees a legitimate leadoff hitter.