NEW YORK — Every swing of the bat matters for the Yankees, who are chasing down a berth in the postseason. Three big swings by the Yankees defined Tuesday's 7-1 victory, the 85th of the season by the team and their seventh across the last 11 games.
A Giancarlo Stanton home run in the third inning knocked Texas starter Dane Dunning out of the game and gave the Yankees a multiple run lead they would not lose the rest of the night. Joey Gallo's solo home run to lead off the sixth inning grew the Yankees lead to 4-1. Aaron Judge's three-run blast an inning later put the game out of reach.
It wasn't the dominant performance for Jordan Montgomery on Tuesday that he had in his previous start, but it was good enough. In his first start since striking out a career-high 12 batters, Montgomery struck out half a dozen across 5.2 innings, putting him in line for his sixth win of the season. Montgomery tossed 93 pitches in his outing, but was able to make it an out short of six solid innings.
Luis Severino returns to the mound
For the first time in 707 days, Luis Severino was finally back on a mound for the Yankees on Tuesday night. Warming up prior to Aaron Judge's home run put the game well in hand, Severino pitched the top of the eighth inning in relief to a large ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd.
In the 100th appearance of his big league career and the first since the 2019 American League Championship Series, Severino struck out a pair of batters and covered first base for another out. Severino allowed a two-out double to Leody Taveras in the eighth, but finished the inning by striking out Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Severino then pitched the ninth, allowing a single but keeping the Rangers off the scoreboard across his six outs.
Severino's season debut set a new franchise record, making him the 59th different Yankees player used this season. This broke a tie with the 2014 team, who also used 58 different players during the season.
Joey Gallo remains red hot
Joey Gallo might be approaching 200 strikeouts for his overall season, but his contributions at the plate have been plentiful since joining the Yankees. Gallo hit another home run Tuesday, his 13th with the Yankees and 38th in total for the season.
Gallo has been hot especially lately with Tuesday's home run being his seventh across his last 11 games, dating back to Sept. 10. It also was significant for Gallo personally, who hit his first home run off of his former team in the bottom of the sixth. The first 145 home runs of Gallo's career came while wearing a Rangers jersey.
