ARLINGTON — A dawn arrival in Texas after an extra-inning loss in Boston had the Yankees looking for a closet of caffeine last night at Rangers Ballpark.
Due to the immense ineptness of the schedule maker, the Yankees played a night game at Fenway Park, boarded a 3 a.m. plane at Logan Airport and arrived at their Dallas hotel shortly after 6 a.m. central.
When the Yankees woke without Alex Rodriguez, there was Yu Darvish, just off the disabled list, waiting for them. The combination of fatigue and the hard-throwing right-hander proved too much for the offensively-challenged visitors who dropped a 3-0 decision in front of 42,058 who sat in 99-degree heat for the first pitch.
“No excuses, this is part of baseball life,’’ manager Joe Girardi said when asked if the sleepwalking performance was due to the long night and early morning, factoring in the Yankees collecting three singles and no runs.
The eighth shutout defeat this season was the Yankees’ fifth loss in sixth games and went to Ivan Nova, who pitched almost as well as Darvish.
The Rays beat the Red Sox, so the Yankees remained seven games back of the Red Sox, whose AL East lead over the Rays was trimmed to one-half length.
Darvish (9-4), pitching for the first time since July 6 due to a strained right trapezius muscle, didn’t look rusty. In
6 1/3 innings, he didn’t allow a run, gave up two hits — both to Lyle Overbay — walked two, hit a batter and fanned four.
“[Darvish] located really well, on the corners and down in the zone,’’ Girardi said.
Nova (4-3) gave up three runs and seven hits in seven innings.
While Girardi was impressed that Nova battled without his best stuff, the right-hander wasn’t satisfied with the quality start.
“I didn’t throw enough strikes,’’ said Nova, who walked three and fanned four. “The curveball wasn’t good and the fastball was off. I really didn’t like it.’’
Nelson Cruz’s 23rd homer with two outs in the seventh increased the Rangers’ lead to 3-0.
Overbay’s second single came in the seventh with one out and was followed by Vernon Wells drawing a walk.
But Darvish terminated the threat by feeding the ice-cold Travis Hafner a 4-6-3 double play ball to keep the Rangers’ lead at 2-0.