ARLINGTON, Texas — They never had a lead, but they can't let it slip away.
On a day that began with Aaron Boone announcing he would at least take on the closer role, the Yankees didn't get a chance to find out who would initially take the closer's spot after Clay Holmes missed his 11th save in a blowout loss on Tuesday night.
Marcus Stroman was held scoreless in 3 2/3 innings, the bullpen took over for mop-up duty and the Yankees fell to the Rangers, 6-10, on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field.
The game was up 10-2 going into the ninth inning, helping the Rangers outscore the Yankees.
With two outs and the bases loaded, he walked and Trent Grisham hit a grand slam off the right field foul pole.
The Yankees then put runners on the corners and even brought Rangers closer Kirby Yates into the game to get Giancarlo Stanton to hit a flyout against the left field wall, but Wyatt Langford made a great jump catch to stop Stanton from hitting a three-run homer.
The Yankees (80-60), who lost for the sixth time in their last eight games, had lost three straight heading into an off day on Thursday and open a weekend series against the Cubs on Friday at Wrigley Field.
The Yankees came within two outs of winning the series on Tuesday but had a lackluster performance on Wednesday, but still trail the Orioles (who lost to the White Sox) for the AL East title.
Stroman had put the Yankees behind 5-0 before leaving the game in the fourth inning.
The right-hander had been solid (2.35 ERA) in his past four starts since being postponed in early August to work on his mechanics, but struggled again Wednesday as the Yankees narrowed their rotation to five starters and tried to figure out the best combination for October.
Stroman has started 27 games this season and has a 4.03 ERA.
Meanwhile, Nathan Eovaldi held the Yankees in check for seven innings.
The only damage was a two-run homer by Juan Soto inside the left field foul pole in the top of the fifth (his 38th of the year). Eovaldi otherwise pitched well, allowing only four hits, walking three and striking out six.
Gleyber Torres and Soto combined to lead off the lineup with four hits for six and three walks, but the rest of the lineup combined to go just one hit for 26 with three walks before Grisham hit a grand slam in the ninth inning.
The Rangers (67-73) scored five runs off Stroman on nine hits and one walk.
It started in the top of the first inning, when Stroman had to throw 31 pitches to get three outs and still trailed 1-0.
The bottom of the second inning began with Leody Taveras hitting a high popup to shallow center field, but Aaron Judge had to run a long way to pick it up and the ball dropped for a double.
Ezequiel Duran, part of the package the Yankees sent to Texas in the Joey Gallo trade, smashed a double to right field to put the Rangers up 2–0.
However, Stroman again led the team to victory with two runners on base.
But after a quick third inning, Stroman found himself in trouble again in the fourth and couldn't get out of it.
With one out, they allowed consecutive hits, and then with two outs, Langford (who hit a walk-off grand slam off Holmes on Tuesday) hit a two-run double to extend the lead to 4-0.
Nathaniel Lowe followed with a single, sending Langford home to extend the lead to 5–0 and removing Stroman from the game.
Rather than wait and see which high-leverage relief pitcher would be suited for ninth-inning duty, the Yankees brought in one low-leverage reliever after another for the remainder of the night, allowing the lead to continue to grow.
After Scott Efros pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, Tim Maza loaded the bases with one out and replaced him with Mark Reiter Jr., but Reiter's two-run double and wild pitch allowed all three runs to score.
Ron Marinaccio gave up two more runs in the seventh, and by the bottom of the eighth, manager Boone waved the white flag on a line change, bringing in Judge, Soto and Alex Verdugo to get a head start on Thursday's day off.
