NEW YORK (AP) — Nestor Cortes took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning before Eli White singled, and Anthony Rizzo doubled in a run in the bottom half to lift the New York Yankees over the Texas Rangers 1-0 Monday for their sixth straight series win.
A 27-year-old left-hander making his 22nd big league start and sixth this season, Cortes pitched a career-high 7 1/3 innings, walked four and struck out 11, one shy of his high. He threw 68 of 103 pitches for strikes.
White, the Rangers’ No. 9 batter lofted a 2-2 fastball into short center field for a clean hit on Cortes’ final pitch. Clay Holmes (4-0) relieved and got Marcus Semien to ground into a double play.
Aaron Judge singled in the eighth off Brett Martin (0-3) and Rizzo, in a 2-for-31 slide, lofted a curveball to the opposite-field gap in left-center.
Aroldis Chapman allowed a two-out single to Jonah Heim in the ninth, then retired Nick Solak on a flyout to finish the two-hitter for his seventh save.
New York has won 13 of its past 15 games, taking two of three in the series despite scoring just five runs.
Texas lost for just the second time in its past seven games.
New York had just two hits against Jon Gray, a two-out single in the fourth by Josh Donaldson and a leadoff single in the fifth by former Ranger Joey Gallo.
Gray was replaced by Brock Burke with one out in the fifth because of what appeared to be an injury. Jose Trevino singled and DJ LeMahieu walked before Burke escaped bases-loaded trouble by striking out Judge and throwing a called third strike past Rizzo.
Gray already has been on the injured list twice this season. He was sidelined from April 9-18 with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and from April 20 to May 3 with a sprained left knee.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: C Mitch Garver was out of the lineup because he was banged up, manager Chris Woodward said.
Yankees: RHP Domingo Germán, on the 60-day IL with right shoulder impingement, has thrown bullpen sessions but not faced batters.
UP NEXT
Rangers: LHP Martín Pérez (0-2) is slated to be on the mound for Tuesday’s opener of a three-game series at Kansas City, which starts RHP Brad Keller (1-2).
Yankees: RHP Luis Severino (2-0) starts Tuesday’s opener of a two-game series against Toronto and LHP Yusei Kikuchi (1-1). Severino will be pitching on eight days’ rest.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
