NEW YORK — For seven innings, the Yankees offense sputtered in its chances to push ahead against the Rangers.
But one inning and a two-out rally was all the Yankees needed to strike and change the narrative of the game. The Yankees broke a tie game open with four runs in the eight inning and emerged with a 7-3 victory over the Rangers in front of 25,170 fans on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium
The victory capped a three-game sweep over the Rangers with a massive nine-game stretch against the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays looming over the final week and a half of the season.
In a 3-3 game against Rangers reliever Shane Patton in the eighth, Joey Gallo — the pull-happy lefty — blooped a two-out double into a vacated shallow left field and set the stage for Gleyber Torres' go-ahead RBI double into the right-field corner.
A booted ground ball by Yonny Hernandez provided another run and Gary Sanchez blew the game open with a two-run home run into center field.
The Yankees moved back into an AL Wild Card spot with Wednesday's win and the Blue Jays' 7-1 loss to the Rays in their afternoon matinee.
The Yankees weathered a patchy start from Corey Kluber, went down by three runs early and scored the tying run in the sixth inning without a hit and a wild pitch. Then, the offense erupted with two outs in the eighth.
After trailing 3-0 after the top of the fifth inning, Kyle Higashioka collected a big two-run double in the bottom of the fifth and Aaron Judge scored the tying run on a wild pitch in the sixth.
Bullpen boost
In a big spot, Corey Kluber could not deliver against the team with the second-fewest runs and second-lowest batting average in Major League Baseball.
He gave up eight hits — the most he has given up in a single outing in 2021 — and needed 84 pitches to go 4⅓ innings.
The Yankees' buillpen, however, was there to provide a lift. They did not allow a hit over the final four innings to keep the Rangers' offense grounded.
Wandy Peralta was able to stay composed after an error put runners on the corners, getting Adolis Garcia to fly out to short and Calhoun to ground out to first. He also picked a pair of comebackers to the mound in the sixth inning.
Clay Holmes pitched a perfect seventh inning with two strikeouts. Chad Green, who earned the win. skirted past a bobble by Urshela and face the minimum number of batters after Garcia was caught stealing.
And Aroldis Chapman came on to pin down the result, picking up strikeouts of Charlie Culberson and Jose Trevino.
Missed opportunities
Higashioka stood at third base with one out following his two-run double into center field that got the Yankees within 3-2 in the fifth.
DJ LeMahieu hit a ball to the middle of right field, but Garcia made a sharp, pinpoint accurate throw home to throw out Higashioka for an inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Yankees loaded the bases on three straight walks and a pitch to the backstop from Denns Santana tied the game. But Gleyber Torres went too far on a check-swing and Gio Urshela looked at a called third strike to end the inning.
Higashioka led off the seventh with a single, and Tyler Wade came on as a pinch runner and stole second and third. But the frame ended with LeMahieu striking out and Anthony Rizzo popping up to center field.
