Phelps Falls Apart in Fifth as Yankees Drop Opener in Texas

Derek Jeter collected three hits to pass Carl Yastrzemski on the all-time list and Brett Gardner homered twice off Yu Darvish, but due to a memorable collapse by David Phelps in the bottom of the fifth the Yankees dissapointingly dropped tonight's series opener to the Rangers 4-2.

Going into that aforementioned fifth frame, somewhat surprisingly, New York led Texas 2-0 on those solo shots from Gardner, making a big W to begin the week seem likely.

Unfortunetaly, though, that wouldn't prove to be the case, with the Rangers beginning a tough-to-watch rally with two outs and a man on second.

To start things off, the ice-cold Elvis Andrus singled in Chris Gimenez, putting Texas on the board in a not-too-stressful way.

Nonetheless, following another knock up the middle from Alex Rios and a double down the left field line from Adrian Beltre that tied it, things became a lot more tough, with another two-run single by newest Yankee-killer J.P. Arencibia only acting as the icing on the cake.

Because from that point on, the punchless Yanks didn't do anything against Darvish (7 IP, 2 ER), causing Phelps and his six frames of four-run ball to eventually take the loss, his first since June 7.

Cervelli, Gardner Rally Yankees to Rain-Shortened 2-1 W

Whether you think he's a reliable starter or not, you can't deny that Yankees Pitcher David Phelps has been great lately. 

The 27-year-old right-hander, who joined the rotation in late April when Michael Pineda got hurt, had given up no more than two earned runs in four consecutive outings going into tonight, a big reason why the team's still competing.

Yes, it is in fact true that the young Notre Dame grad's dominated over the last few weeks, an occurance that only continued this evening, with Phelps tossing 5 frames of five-hit, one-run ball as the Yanks won a rain shortened game over the Rangers 2-1.

In this one's top of the third, as expected, Phelps did have his one bump in the road, surrendering a pair of singles to Leonys Martin and Chris Gimenez that led to a run-scoring double play. 

Nonetheless, he'd eventually find a way to get the W, with Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner heading a rally in the New York's next turn.

After Cervelli doubled and Brendan Ryan grounded him to third to begin the at-bat, the former scored on a balk by Texas' Yu Darvish (4 1/3 IP, 2 ER, Left With Man On Second), setting up a seemingly stress-free 3-1 pitch to Gardner, which would be skied into the right fields stands to give the Bombers an advantage. 

No, the veteran's tenth homer of the season wasn't hit all that hard, but since it did still reach the fifth row it obviously counted, making it 2-1.

Later on, the now 5-4 with a 3.77 ERA Phelps would escape a man-on-third, one-out jam in the Rangers' half of the fifth, essentially ending the ballgame, with things being called in the bottom of that frame after a 1 hour, 49 minute rain delay.