About Last Night: Yankees 3, Rangers 2

By Derek McAdam

April 29, 2026

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The New York Yankees defeated the Texas Rangers last night by a score of 3-2 to improve to 20-10 on the young season. Here’s a quick recap of last night’s game.

Quick Stats: W: Cam Schlittler (4-1): 6 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K

                     L: Jacob deGrom (2-1): 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5 K

                     S: David Bednar (9): 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R (1 ER)

HRs: NYY: Austin Wells (3), Aaron Judge (12)

The Big Story: The Yankees were fresh off a 4-2 victory in the first of three games in Arlington and were looking to take the series victory and improve to 7-1 on the road trip.

Last night’s game was slated to be a pitching duel between Cam Schlittler and Jacob deGrom, a couple of hard-throwing right-handers who are off to excellent starts this season. And while the weather was wild down in Arlington yesterday, the first inning was just as wild, especially defensively for both teams.

Aaron Judge slapped a hard single into center field with two outs to bring up Cody Bellinger, who just missed a two-run home run by inches, but was able to get Judge across the plate to give the Yankees a quick 1-0 lead. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then hit a hard drive into right-center field, but Evan Carter ran the ball down to take away an extra-base hit from Chisholm and a run for the Yankees, ultimately ending the top half of the inning.

But the Yankees also brought their defensive talents to put on display. Cody Bellinger ran down a fly ball from Brandon Nimmo that reached the warning track, while Trent Grisham then made a diving catch to rob Josh Jung of a hit.

Through the first few innings, the pitching matchup was as advertised. Both pitchers were able to keep the traffic on base low and give the viewers a very nice pitchers’ duel.

In the 6th, Schlittler ran into some trouble by giving up a leadoff single to Nimmo and walking Jung with no outs for Corey Seager, who struck out to bring up Joe Pederson. The designated hitter popped up to shallow center field and Jake Burger popped up to Judge in right to end the inning and give the youngster six shutout innings of work, which would complete his night.

deGrom’s night was complete after six innings of work, in which he managed to keep the Yankees’ offense to scoring only one run. Jalen Beeks came in to relieve deGrom to start the 7th, to which Wells hit a solo home run into the right field seats to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. The Rangers threatened in the bottom of the inning with runners and first and second with two outs, but Brent Headrick managed to strike out Nimmo to keep the Rangers off the board.

To start the 8th, Fernando Cruz gave up a leadoff single to Jung and walked Seager for Pederson, who bunted into a force out at third. Cruz made a throw while he was on the ground to make the out, one of the more incredible plays I've seen in recent memory. Burger then struck out for the second out of the inning, and pinch-hitter Ezequiel Duran struck out to end the inning and still keep the Rangers off the board.

In the 9th, Judge tacked on an insurance run with a mammoth home run into the second deck in left field to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead, tying him for the AL lead in home runs with 12 so far. Bednar then came in to try and close out the game for the Yankees. With one out, Ryan McMahon bobbled a throw to first, allowing Andrew McCutchen to reach. Danny Jansen then hit an RBI triple to put the Rangers’ on the board and putting Nimmo as the tying run. After Nimmo was hit by a pitch, Jung represented the winning run and hit an RBI single to score Jansen and cut the Yankee lead to 3-2. However, Seager then grounded into a double play to end the game and give the Yankees a 3-2 victory.

Player of the Game: Cam Schlittler was fantastic on the mound and kept the Yankees in the game while deGrom dominated on the other end.

Notable Performances: As mentioned above, deGrom was fantastic for the Rangers, holding the Yankees to only one run in six innings. Wells and Judge also had big blasts, with Judge’s being the ultimate game winner. Nimmo and Jung also had a couple of hits each for the Rangers.

Better to Forget: I usually don’t like giving this to opposing players, but Seager will want to forget last night. He had a couple of opportunities with runners on base to push runs across the plate for the Rangers and failed to do so, especially in the 9th.

My Take: I am usually never one who is a fan of pitching duels, but this was one that I was excited to see on the schedule. It was a battle of older vs. younger, one of the best pitchers that has player in MLB history (barring injuries) against a pitcher who has made an incredible impact in his less than one season in the big leagues. And both pitchers throw in the upper 90s and have relatively similar pitches.

Even though Max Fried is the ace of the team, Schlittler is turning the situation into a 1A/1B scenario in which there are two aces on the team. Fried has been very good this season so far, but Schlittler has been just a touch better. And there’s no point in arguing who is better right now. They are both lighting it up for the Yankees, which is what they have needed so desperately over the years.

Schlittler brought the heat last night, with several pitches hitting 100 mph and the fastball looking very good yet again. The Rangers are one of the better teams at hitting the higher velocity pitchers, but Schlittler managed to contain them in the six innings he pitched. And while the Yankee offense hasn’t been very active this series, the solid pitching has made up for that. As someone who is very interested in high-scoring games, I’ve found myself glued to my seat watching these couple of games in this series that has not resulted in much offense.

The Yankees’ pitchers also gave the Rangers very good opportunities to at least push one run across in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings, but the pitching came through and made sure that no runs crossed the plate. Needless to say, the shirt I was wearing was definitely saturated because of the intensity of this game. It definitely had that playoff intensity throughout the game.

And Judge continues to heat up at the plate. Going into this series, it seemed as if Judge was on the verge of breaking out. There were numerous balls he was fouling off and just missing hitting a bullet or some fly balls that went into the outfield were just slightly under his bat. Starting Sunday, he has managed to turn three of those into home runs and has looked like his MVP-self at the plate, which the Yankees will definitely need going forward.

The 9th inning was definitely stressful to watch. The McMahon error was unfortunate, but Bednar was able to work out of major trouble and give the Yankees a series victory. Trent Grisham also gave the Yankees a scare, and I thought it may have been a serious knee injury, such as an ACL tear. But he got up and was walking fine, so it seems any major knee injury was avoided, but we will see very soon.

The Yankees walked away with a series victory and will go for the sweep today. It wasn’t a pretty win last night, but a win is a win and I will gladly take it. I’m also very excited for what the Yankees have in store today, which will be mentioned in the next paragraph. Let’s hope the Yankees can finish out this already-fantastic road trip at 8-1 instead of 7-2 this afternoon.

What’s Next?: The Yankees will be back in action this afternoon and will go for the sweep against Texas to wrap up their nine-game road trip. Elmer Rodriguez, who the Yankees called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, will make his MLB debut start. The Rangers will start former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi, who has historically been very good against the Yankees. First pitch is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. EST from Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.