Yankees’ 11-run inning highlights game full of baseball oddities
Normally when a team scores five runs in the first inning, and chases the other team’s starter, it wins. Normally that team doesn’t lose by 16 runs. Tuesday’s game between the Rangers and Yankees was anything but normal.
The Yankees used a 10-hit, 11-run second inning to erase a 5-0 deficit and cruise to an improbable 21-5 victory over the Rangers. The Yankees didn’t hit a single home run in the inning and knocked starter Martin Perez out of the game after the first eight batters reached safely.
The second inning looked like this:
Uh, so does that still count as striking out the side?
The 11-run inning was just one of the many oddities in the game as the Yankees scored the most runs in the majors this season, and won for the eighth time in nine games. After the first inning, the Yankees chances of winning were eight percent, according to the Baseball-Reference.com win probability chart. After the second inning, it was 93 percent.
Some more fun facts from the game: The Rangers appeared well on their way to a win after scoring five runs in the first inning off Yankees starter Chris Capuano. Capuano didn’t make it out of the inning and his ERA ballooned from 5.64 to 6.97.
But after Capuano left two Yankees relievers combined to throw 8.1 innings of no-hit ball. Diego Moreno, who was recalled from Triple-A earlier in the day, went 5.1 innings giving up no hits, walking one, and striking out five. Adam Warren pitched the final three innings and earned a save – in a game won by 16 runs.
After Rangers starter Perez got yanked in the second inning, the Rangers had to use six different relievers to finish the game.
Mark Teixeira was the only Yankees starter to not record a hit or an RBI. Chris Young drove in five runs for the Yankees thanks in part to a third-inning grand slam, and the Yankees went 11-for-21 with runners in scoring position.
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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.