ARLINGTON, Texas — The first three relievers out of the Yankees bullpen on Monday night followed the blueprint perfectly.
Then Devin Williams chewed it up and spit it out.
After Luke Weaver, Camilo Doval and David Bednar each tossed a perfect inning to protect a one-run lead, Williams gave up a game-tying blast to Joc Pederson in the bottom of the ninth.
Jake Bird then served up a walk-off home run off the bat of Josh Jung in the bottom of the 10th to hand the Yankees their fourth straight loss, this one a gut punch 8-5 defeat to the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
Bird had retired the first two batters in order in the bottom of the 10th before the Yankees intentionally walked Wyatt Langford to bring up Jung, who crushed a three-run shot to end it.
The Yankees had runners on the corners with one out in the top of the 10th but came up empty when Austin Wells grounded into a double play.
After the new-look bullpen had faltered in brutal fashion on Friday night in Miami, giving way to a sweep by the Marlins, the Yankees looked to be on their way to a better ending in their second chance Monday. Instead, the end result was all too familiar.
Williams has given up at least one earned run in five of his past seven appearances since the All-Star break. He had pitched well for a 25-game stretch before that, but his early season struggles have resurfaced.
With the Yankees now having two former closers in their bullpen in Bednar and Doval, it remains to be seen whether manager Aaron Boone will make a change with how he handles the ninth inning.
Coming off a miserable weekend in Miami with their playoff spot suddenly looking tenuous — the Rangers (59-55) entered the night as the last team out in the AL wild-card race but now only trail the Yankees (60-53) by 1 ¹/₂ games — Aaron Boone’s club fell further into third place in the AL East.
The bullpen had to get to work early on a night when Max Fried labored just to get through five innings. It was a grind for the left-hander, who gave up four runs on eight hits and three walks across 105 pitches and now owns a 5.81 ERA across his last six starts.
Giancarlo Stanton’s home run in the fourth inning, which flew off the bat at 115 mph, had put the Yankees up 5-4. It was his 10th of the season, all of them coming in his last 24 games.
The timing of it presented another reminder of the dilemma that is facing the Yankees. Aaron Judge is expected to return from the injured list on Tuesday, but he will be limited to DH, at least initially, as he begins his throwing program in the coming days. That will almost certainly force Stanton into a bench role, unless the Yankees actually take the risk of using him in the outfield. Boone said Monday afternoon that was at least a possibility once the Yankees return home on Friday, but it is hard to imagine it happening given Stanton’s injury history.
Paul Goldschmidt, who was on the field five hours before first pitch Monday taking early batting practice (as he will do on occasion), crushed the third pitch of the game for a leadoff home run against left-hander Patrick Corbin. It marked the veteran first baseman’s first home run since June 19, going 31 games without one, a stretch in which he hit just .212 with a .566 OPS.
The Yankees went on to load the bases with two outs, but failed to push across another run.
In the second inning, Amed Rosario — who doubled for his 1,000th career hit in the first inning — and Cody Bellinger roped back-to-back RBI singles to make it a 3-0 game. But again, the Yankees loaded the bases, this time with one out, and stranded them all as they wasted another opportunity to break the game open.
It did not take long for that to come back to haunt the Yankees, as the Rangers rallied for four runs to take the lead in the bottom of the second. Fried gave up a one-out double and walk before the Rangers strung together four straight singles — the first three hard-hit ground balls — to tie the game 3-3.
Then with the bases loaded, the Yankees ran a pickoff play at second base, but Fried’s throw went into center field, allowing the go-ahead run to score from third to make it 4-3 Rangers.
Fried led off the bottom of the fourth inning by issuing a four-pitch walk to No. 8 hitter Jonah Heim before Ezequiel Duran followed with a single. Those runners were on second and third with two outs when Fried got bailed out by Anthony Volpe, who made a strong sliding stab on a smoked one-hopper by Marcus Semien and bounced a throw to first that got picked by Goldschmidt to escape the jam.
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