Yanks Rally In The 9th To Beat The Rangers

ARLINGTON -- It's almost been routine that when the Yankees are trailing late in a game, they shut down, and fail to put up any sort for fight. But that wasn't the case Tuesday night in Arlington.

After the Rangers put together a four run 6th inning to give themselves the lead, the Yankees pulled off a 9th inning comeback to almost doesn't compute with a lineup like this.

It all started with a walk to Vernon Wells, issued by Texas' closer, all-star Joe Nathan. Wells reached second on a wild pitch, then in the clutchest of moments, Eduardo Nunez ripped a triple off the wall in center field to tie the game.

"It feels great, you know?" Nunez said. "We've had a lot of bad things this year. Now, I want to come back to play better. I think it's a great feeling for me and my teammates so I can help the team to win."

Then Brent Lillibridge earned his pinstripes by lining a single into left field to score Nunez and give the Yankees a 5-4 lead, and giving Mariano Rivera a chance to do his thing.

After striking out the first two batters he faced, Mariano induced a ground out from Daniel Murphy to end the game, picking up his 32nd save of the season.

"I saw something big for me, a slider that was big enough to swing at, and I was able to drop it into left field," Lillibridge said. "You ease a tough start of the day and finish strong."

But just a few innings earlier, all seemed like things were just going again the Yankees, and that they would let a good outing by Phil Hughes slip away.

Hughes was in control, running through the Rangers lineup through the first five innings then it all fell apart in the 6th.

With a 3-0 lead entering the inning, Hughes had held the Rangers scoreless on just two hits, before Texas rattled off a four run inning off Hughes and the bullpen.

The inning kicked off when Nelson Cruz ripped a ball that was booted by third baseman Brent Lillibridge. The hot-hitting Adrian Beltre ripped a double into the left-center field gap, motoring around the bases came Cruz to put the Rangers on the board.

After Beltre tagged and reached third on a flyball to right-center, Elvis Andrus lined a single into right field to cut the Yankees lead to 3-2. Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild made a visit to the mound, then decided to pull the plug on Hughes, making to move to have Boone Logan face Mitch Moreland with two outs.

The decision to pull Hughes didn't make much sense to me, considering he had been pitching well all night, giving up just two runs on four hits to that point.

As it turns out, the move to the pen would backfire on the Yankees, when Moreland got a hold of a fastball from Logan, launching it beyond the center field wall to pull the Rangers ahead.

"That's Boonie's job, to come in and get Moreland out," Girardi said. "Unfortunately, he didn't do it tonight, but I'll throw him out there again."

Yet in the end, the Yankees were able to channel their April lineup that had become known to be one of the more resilient lineups in the league. They pulled off the late comeback to snap a two-game losing streak, and kept them from having lost six of their last seven games.

"It's amazing how baseball sometimes works, where that random error, all of a sudden things start falling apart," Lillibridge said. "I was glad we were able to hold it close and get an opportunity late against a great closer."

"These guys never give up," Girardi said. "They keep grinding out at-bats."

The Yankees snapped another streak during the game, ending a streak of 20 straight hits that were nothing more than just singles. Melky Mesa doubled to open the 3rd, the Austin Romine doubled a batter later to bring him home.

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