NEW YORK — When a long Sunday began, Yankees manager Aaron Boone greeted reporters with the following: “You guys have a good All-Star break?”
That was a joke. It only felt that way. The Yankees had not played since Wednesday, followed by an off day and two days of rain.
But they finally got back at it with a doubleheader against the Rangers, winning Game 1, 2-1, on a walk-off home run to rightfield by Gleyber Torres leading off the bottom of the ninth inning.
It was their 12th victory in 13 games and improved their record to 19-7.
The Yankees did not have a hit through five innings, then took the lead in the sixth on an infield single by Aaron Judge, a single by Anthony Rizzo that moved Judge to third, and a sacrifice fly by Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton smoked the ball, but with a stiff wind blowing in all day from leftfield, he had to settle for the fly out and RBI.
At that point, Gerrit Cole had shut out the Rangers through six innings, having thrown 105 pitches while allowing four hits and striking out nine.
But surprisingly, he returned for the seventh inning. Boone had acknowledged before the game that with the Yankees facing three games in about 28 hours Sunday and Monday – and 23 games over 22 days – it would be helpful to get a long start out of Cole.
The move backfired. After striking out the first batter of the seventh, Cole saw Kole Calhoun of the Rangers rip a line drive inside the rightfield foul pole to the game. That was it for Cole, who threw 114 pitches, a season-high.
The Yankees had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the seventh when they put runners on second and third with one out, but Aaron Hicks struck out and Judge flew out to center.
The strikeout left Hicks 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position this season.
