For a seventh straight start, Ivan Nova didn’t have it.
Fortunately for the Yankees, the pitcher the Rangers called up from the minors earlier in the day didn’t either, allowing them to hold a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth inning Monday night.
Play was delayed at 10:40 p.m. with one on and none out because of heavy rain.
Aroldis Chapman walked Robinson Chirinos and fell behind Shin-Soo Choo 3-and-1 before crew chief Paul Nauert called for the tarp.
The Yankees, who had 15 hits, including three each from Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira and Didi Gregorius, went ahead 5-4 in the fifth on Gregorius’ two-out RBI single, and Joe Girardi hoped the bullpen would take it from there.
Lefthander Richard Bleier pitched a perfect sixth before giving way to the power arms in the back end, with the Yankees looking to improve to 13-0 when Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Chapman appear in the same game.
After Betances struck out one in a perfect seventh, Teixeira’s second homer in as many days made it 6-4. After he went 147 at-bats without a home run before hitting one in the eighth inning Sunday, this was his second homer in five at-bats.
Miller struck out three in the eighth but allowed Rougned Odor’s 14th homer, a one-out shot into the second deck in rightfield that made it 6-5.
Nova entered the game 5-5 with a 5.18 ERA, including 2-4 with a 6.88 ERA in his previous six games, a stretch in which he allowed eight homers. Against the Rangers, he allowed four runs and six hits in five innings.
Texas righty Chi Chi Gonzalez, a 24-year-old called up from Triple-A Round Rock because of the spate of injuries to the Rangers’ rotation, allowed five runs and 10 hits in five innings.
The Rangers, limited to seven hits, twice held the lead.
In the first, Ian Desmond hit his 14th homer, making it 1-0.
Singles by Teixeira, Gregorius and Chase Headley produced a run in the second, and Aaron Hicks’ RBI groundout made it 2-1.
Nova walked No. 9 hitter Chirinos to start the third and Choo doubled into the corner in right. Desmond’s chopper to first tied it at 2, but Nova stranded Choo at third, getting Nomar Mazara to pop out to third in foul ground and Adrian Beltre to ground to first.
The Yankees retook the lead in the bottom half, an odd inning in which there were no hard-hit balls. Beltran lofted a one-out fly to center and Desmond lost his footing, with the ball landing for a single. Brian McCann walked and Teixeira flared a single to center to load the bases. Starlin Castro’s broken-bat single to center made it 3-2.
Choo’s two-out, two-run single in the fourth gave Texas a 4-3 lead, but McCann’s RBI single in the fifth tied it at 4, setting the stage for Gregorius’ two-out RBI single to left.
Notes & quotes: CC Sa bathia, who twisted his right ankle in his previous start, still is slated to take the mound Tuesday night. “He threw his bullpen fine [Saturday], he’s done everything else fine, but I’m still a little concerned about it,” Girardi said . . . The Cubs and Giants, two clubs in need of bullpen help, again were among the teams with scouts in attendance Monday night.
..... - Newsday