ARLINGTON, Texas — By the time they arrived at Globe Life Field on Wednesday morning, the Yankees had already secured a terrific nine-game, three-city road trip.
But instead of putting a cherry on top in the finale against the Rangers, their ice cream melted in front of them.
Elmer Rodríguez struggled to throw strikes in his MLB debut, Jasson Domínguez left the game early after being hit by a pitch on the left elbow and most problematic, the Yankees could not touch Nathan Eovaldi in a 3-0 loss to the Rangers.
Eovaldi tossed seven shutout innings, holding his former team to just four singles and one walk while striking out five.
That continued a trend of the Yankees (20-11) not being able to figure out the tough right-hander, who now owns a 1.58 ERA in seven starts against them since 2023.
Rodríguez, meanwhile, gave up two runs across four-plus innings — both runs coming in the fifth — while walking four, hitting a batter and scattering four hits. Of the 80 pitches he threw, only 42 were strikes, as the Rangers (15-16) made him work.
Of greater concern was Domínguez’s left elbow, after the team said he underwent X-rays at the stadium but would require further imaging back in New York. For now, the Yankees called it a “left elbow contusion,” after he was evaluated by the Rangers team physician, but it sounded more troublesome than that.
Domínguez, who was called up Monday to fill in for the injured Giancarlo Stanton and looked like he was going to stick around for a bit with Randal Grichuk getting designated for assignment Wednesday morning, was hit by Eovaldi’s 89 mph cutter in the fourth. He stayed in the game to run the bases but then was replaced by Max Schuemann in left field in the bottom of the frame.
The series of unfortunate events delivered a buzzkill to an otherwise encouraging trip, which the Yankees finished 7-2 before flying home for an off-day Thursday.
In four starts at Triple-A this year, Rodríguez had walked just seven batters across 21 ¹/₃ innings. Then he walked four across four-plus innings in his debut — including three of the first eight batters he faced — creating some early jams for him to escape and one late that he could not.
The latter came in the fifth inning, which the 22-year-old began by hitting No. 8 hitter Alejandro Osuna with a 95 mph fastball and then walking Ezequiel Duran.
After Brandon Nimmo hit a one-hopper off the glove of a drawn-in Ben Rice at first base for a single to load the bases, Josh Jung roped a two-run single through the left side for a 2-0 lead.
Brent Headrick came in to clean up Rodríguez’s mess and strand the two inherited runners, but the damage was done.
The Rangers later added a run in the seventh inning off Jake Bird.
