ARLINGTON, Texas — Elvis Andrus had a tiebreaking RBI triple and Texas beat the New York Yankees 3-2 on Wednesday night, when former Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez hit his 100th homer in the stadium.
A-Rod’s 690th career homer gave him triple digits in the Rangers’ ballpark. He hit 86 at home for Texas from 2001-03 and has 14 more in 65 games as a visitor there — first with Seattle before his big deal with the Rangers, and after being traded to the Yankees.
Andrus tripled into the right-center field gap in the sixth, a ball that rolled to the wall after Rougned Odor drew a two-out walk off CC Sabathia (1-2), to snap a 2-all tie.
Martin Perez (1-2) struck out three while allowing two runs and six hits over six innings. The Rangers had lost each of the first four games started by the left-hander.
After Jake Diekman threw two scoreless innings, Shawn Tolleson worked the ninth against the middle of the Yankees lineup for his seventh save in eight chances.
Rodriguez was back in New York’s lineup after missing the first two games in Texas.
The 40-year-old Rodriguez came out of Sunday’s home game for the Yankees because of stiffness in his left side after an earlier double snapped a 1-for-18 slide.
He went 3 for 3 with a walk Wednesday to raise his average 45 points to .190.
His solo homer over the 14-foot wall with two outs in the fourth tied the game at 2-all. That was also his 1,000th career run for the Yankees, the 12th player in team history to score that many.
Along with the 124 homers he hit in old Yankee Stadium (as a visitor and with the home team through 2008), and the 100 in Arlington, A-Rod is the only active player with at least 100 home runs in two different stadiums, according to STATS.
Rodriguez also has 100 homers in Seattle, his original MLB team, but 60 of those were in the Kingdome and 40 more at Safeco Field since. He has 71 homers at home since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009.
Tigers 9, Athletics 4 Brad Ausmus shook up the lineup and Detroit responded with its highest-scoring game of the season.
Just a coincidence, perhaps, but the Tigers and their manager will take it.
“You only have so much at your beck and call as a manager, things you can do when an offense is struggling,” Ausmus said. “Not that it was a huge shock with the lineup change, but you hope it’s some type of shock to the lineup system that maybe has some positive effect.”
J.D. and Victor Martinez both homered, and Justin Verlander pitched impressively into the seventh inning to lift the Tigers to a victory over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night. Ausmus moved J.D. Martinez from fifth to second in the batting order, swapping him with Justin Upton. J.D. Martinez hit a three-run homer in the second inning. Victor Martinez added a three-run shot of his own in the sixth.
Verlander (2-2) allowed three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings, his third straight quality start since allowing seven runs against Pittsburgh on April 11.
Sonny Gray (3-2) lasted only two innings in the shortest start of his big league career. He allowed four runs, two hits and four walks, throwing 65 pitches.
“I’ve been out of the zone more than I’ve wanted early in the season, but until tonight, it hadn’t hurt me. I’ve had some close calls, but I’ve been able to get out of them,” Gray said. “Tonight, I didn’t have anything. I don’t remember a start like this, where every breaking ball I threw was awful and I couldn’t locate anything.”
Detroit had lost seven of its previous nine, scoring more than three runs only once in the prior seven games. Ausmus was hoping something would click if he adjusted the lineup, and Detroit broke through with four runs in the second.
Nick Castellanos led off with a triple and scored on a one-out grounder by Anthony Gose. With his pitch count already mounting, Gray allowed J.D. Martinez’s homer to right-center field, which made it 4-0.