Monday night was a long, sloppy, and ultimately disappointing night for the Yankees. The standings will reflect a 9-6 loss to the Rangers (box score), but gosh, that only tells part of the story.
The Yankees took a 6-5 lead into the ninth inning and handed the ball over to all-world closer Aroldis Chapman. It had been raining pretty steadily all night, though not so heavy that they had to stop the game. It was kind of stuff teams play through all the time.
The rain intensified in the seventh inning and even moreso in the eighth inning. By time Chapman took the mound in the ninth, the two teams were playing in a heavy downpour.
Chapman was noticeably tentative on the wet mound and seven of his first nine pitches were balls. He walked the leadoff hitter and fell behind in the count 3-1 on the next batter before Yankees manager Joe Girardi came out and said the playing conditions were unsafe. The umpires got together and decided to call for the tarp.
"I didn't ask to stop the game," Girardi said to reporters, including ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand, after the game. "To me, the game should've been stopped earlier than that. We played in horrible conditions. I think you risk injury to players."
A three hour and 35 minute rain delay followed. The game started 20 minutes late due to rain, and the tarp was put on the field in the ninth inning, so the game did not resume until 2:15am ET. Every single other game on the schedule had ended before the Yankees and Rangers resumed play. Even the West Coast games.
"I think our intention was to finish that game," said crew chief Paul Nauert, according to Marchand. "You've got to give both teams an equal, fair opportunity. We were going to wait as long as we could."
Once the game resumed, Chapman had been removed because he sat too long and the Yankees didn't want to risk injury by getting him hot again. Kirby Yates came in for the save -- Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller pitched earlier in the game -- and wound up allowed four runs in the ninth. Here's the video:
That's the kind of loss that is going to stick with the Yankees for a while. They had the Rangers right where they wanted them, with Chapman on the mound protecting a lead, but the rain interfered and Yates blew the game. He managed to hit three batters in that ninth inning, all three in two-strike counts too.
Amazingly, Monday was the first time the Yankees lost a game when taking a lead into the ninth inning in more than two years.
Yankees haven't lost a game they held a lead heading into the 9th inning since 2014. 34-0 this year, 81-0 last year.
— Katie Sharp (@ktsharp) June 28, 2016
The exact date of their last loss when leading after eight innings: June 1, 2014. Three relievers, including then-closer David Robertson, allowed five runs in the ninth inning against the Twins that day to turn a 2-1 lead into a 7-2 loss.
The Yankees had been 115-0 when leading after eight innings since the start of last season, which is the kind of thing that happens when you have Betances, Miller, and Chapman in your bullpen. The other 29 teams have .964 winning percentage when taking a lead into the ninth since the start of last year, which is still really good, but it's not perfect.
The Rangers, meanwhile, became the first team in baseball to reach 50 wins Monday. They've won 23 of their last 29 games and are 50-27 overall this season.
