Aaron Judge’s return can’t help Yankees as Devin Williams gives it up again for fifth straight loss
ARLINGTON, Texas — Not even Aaron Judge’s return could act as a human defibrillator for the Yankees.
Then again, their problems dated back to well before he went on the injured list, so his comeback was not going to be a cure-all.
And while the Yankees only mustering two hits was the biggest issue of the night, a tight game found Devin Williams once again and again, the reliever could not come through in the biggest of moments.
A night after he gave up the game-tying home run in the ninth inning, Williams entered a scoreless game in the eighth inning and gave up a pair of runs that were the difference in the Yankees’ fifth straight loss, 2-0 to the Rangers on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.
Williams got the first out of the eighth before Adolis Garcia smoked a fly ball to left field. Jasson Domínguez ran back on it and then made a leaping attempt just before the warning track, but the ball tipped off his glove and went for a double.
Joc Pederson, who hit the game-tying homer off Williams on Monday night and entered Tuesday batting .132, came up next and drew a four-pitch walk before Williams walked Wyatt Langford on five pitches to load the bases.
The Yankees quickly had Mark Leiter Jr. and David Bednar warming in the bullpen, but Aaron Boone stuck with Williams to face the lefty-swinging Rowdy Tellez, who battled for a 10-pitch at bat that ended in a two-run single to center.
Boone had said before the game that he would be open to using other relievers to close a game moving forward, but after Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver threw the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, the manager turned to Williams for the eighth.
The last thing a scuffling team needs to see is Nathan Eovaldi, but that is who was standing on the mound Tuesday night against the Yankees.
The Rangers ace was coming off a July in which he had allowed just two earned runs across 30 2/3 innings, then got even more dominant on Tuesday.
Eovaldi dominated the Yankees, suffocating them all night and holding them to just one baserunner across eight shutout innings. Anthony Volpe’s hustle double with two outs in the third inning was all that stood between the Yankees and potentially being on the wrong side of history.
Ryan McMahon led off the ninth with a single against Phil Maton, but was quickly erased when pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton grounded into a double play.
In his first game since July 25, the day before he was diagnosed with a right flexor strain, Judge went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts.
Will Warren turned in a strong outing of five scoreless innings after flirting with trouble for most of the night.
He gave up three hits and three walks, but held the Rangers to 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position – stranding a runner at third base in three of his first four innings — while striking out five.
The only issue is that he needed 98 pitches to get 15 outs, becoming the sixth straight Yankees starter to not make it into the sixth inning, meaning another heavy night of work for the bullpen.
