Ronald Guzman #67 of the Texas Rangers hits his third homerun of the night at the top of the seventh inning against the New York Yankees during their game at Yankee Stadium on August 10, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (AP) - Ronald Guzman became the first rookie to hit three home runs in a game against the Yankees, powering the Texas Rangers past New York 12-7 on Friday night.
Eight days after Boston's Steve Pearce connected three times off the Yankees, Guzman duplicated the feat in ending New York's four-game winning streak.
Guzman grounded out his first time up, then hit solo home runs in three straight at-bats. The 23-year-old first baseman batted again in the eighth with a chance to tie the big league record for homers in a game - no rookie has ever hit four - but struck out swinging against Chad Green.
Guzman's two homers off Masahiro Tanaka and one off A.J. Cole made him the first Texas player to hit three home runs in a game since teammate Adrian Beltre in 2012. Guzman became the first Rangers rookie to accomplish the feat.
Overall, Guzman has 12 home runs this season, six against the Yankees.
Beltre also joined in the fun with his seventh homer of the season, tying recent Hall of Fame inductee Chipper Jones for the 33rd spot on baseball's all-time list with 469.
Mike Minor (9-6) won his third straight start, allowing six hits and four runs in 5 2/3 innings. The lefty had not won three consecutive starts since September 2014 while pitching for the Atlanta Braves. He missed the 2015 and 2016 seasons because of a torn labrum.
Tanaka (9-3) had been 7-0 in his previous 14 starts, but again couldn't figure out the Rangers. He entered the night with having gone 1-2 with a 6.52 ERA in his first five starts against Texas.
Guzman pulled homers to right field in the fourth and the sixth that made it 6-1 and chased Tanaka. Guzman went the opposite way for a drive in the seventh off Cole.
Austin Romine, who drove in three runs, and Brett Gardner homered for the Yankees. Luke Voit added a two-run single.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rangers: OF Delino DeShields should return for Sunday's series finale. DeShields, who banged his head trying to make a catch on July 11 at Boston, was placed last Saturday on the 7-day concussion disabled list after experiencing headaches. "Everything is good. They said it could have been triggered by different things," he said. "But they don't think it was related to a concussion."
Yankees: C Gary Sanchez (groin) has been on the disabled list since July 24. "I would say Monday will really ramp up as far as the hitting, start to do catching things," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "And then the normal conditioning as well. But he's progressing well, feeling good." ... Boone is confident OF Aaron Judge (broken right wrist) can swing a bat next week. He's been on the disabled list since July 27. "Still just better and better every day. The range of motion is all there, just still barely feeling it and that was even today, barely feeling it at the end range and we just want to get that pain completely out of there," Boone said. "Optimistic that in the next couple of days that potentially could happen and we get a bat in his hand and hopefully it starts to progress really quickly from there."
UP NEXT
Rangers: RHP Drew Hutchinson (1-2, 6.29 ERA) starts Saturday.
Yankees: RHP Lance Lynn (8-8, 4.58) makes his first start in pinstripes at Yankee Stadium. Acquired from the Twins on July 30, Lynn gave up just two hits over 7 1/3 innings in his first start with New York on Monday vs. the White Sox.