Aaron judge, ben rice homer to back will warren’s gem as yankees roll past rangers

Through his first five games over two seasons, Clarke Schmidt pitched to a 6.39 ERA. After his first six major league appearances with the Braves, Max Fried’s ERA sat at 4.70. Gerrit Cole

was merely promising with the Pirates before blossoming into Gerrit Cole with the Astros. It can take pitchers a handful of starts or a handful of years to learn how to consistently retire

major league hitters. It is possible the education of Will Warren is unfolding rapidly. The best development of May for the Yankees has been the development of a player no longer a prospect

and no longer looking like a project, Warren taking steps toward growing into a legitimate, reliable major league pitcher. The righty looked like one again Tuesday, when he struck out a

career-best 10 and shut down the Rangers in a 5-2, series-opening victory in front of 40,343 in The Bronx. The Yankees (28-19) moved to a season-best nine games over .500 and won for a ninth

time in their past 12, beating Aaron Boone’s brother (Bret, the Rangers hitting coach) and Mark Leiter Jr.’s cousin (Jack, a Rangers starter). EXPLORE MORE They did so behind a big day from

Ben Rice, home run No. 16 from Aaron Judge and a 25-year-old hurler looking more refined with every outing. Warren had been crushed in six games last season and held a precarious rotation

spot after seven games this year, when his ERA read 5.65. Over his past three games, he has looked like a pitcher who is figuring it out. Against the A’s, Mariners and Rangers, Warren has

let up three runs in 18 innings (1.50 ERA). “I think I was close this whole time,” said Warren, who scattered five hits over 5 ²/₃ scoreless innings and walked just one Tuesday. “It’s just …

execution, just sticking to our plan and trusting that I’m here for a reason.” Surrendering little hard contact, he cruised through four innings before allowing his first batter to reach

scoring position, Jonah Heim sending a two-out double into the right-field corner. A calm Warren then dotted a four-seamer at the corner of the zone to punch out Sam Haggerty.

------------------------- ------------------------- An inning later, the Rangers loaded the bases fairly incidentally: Warren lost Wyatt Langford on a seven-pitch walk, and Josh Jung and

Adolis García blooped well-placed singles that created trouble. With his 101st and final pitch of the game, Warren used one of his better sinkers to catch Marcus Semien looking. “I think

he’s just putting it together a little bit more now,” said Boone, who pulled Warren one out from escaping the danger. On this night Warren had plenty of help — which included the Yankees’

Leiter, who turned to a disappearing splitter to strike out Joc Pederson and get out of the bases-loaded jam, and included a remarkable catch in the inning from Oswald Peraza, who tumbled

over the tarp behind third base. The support for Warren had started earlier. Rice cranked his 10th homer of the season, a no-doubt shot into the second deck in right, to begin the Yankees

scoring in the second inning. The catcher/first baseman — who has taken pregame ground balls at third base, inspiring some curiosity concerning if he can figure out yet another position —

reminded why it might be worth exploring every avenue to shoehorn his bat into the lineup. In the fourth, after a Judge rocket single and steal then a bloop hit from Cody Bellinger, Rice

sent a bullet to deep center field for a sacrifice fly and his second RBI. The Yankees added on in the sixth, when Anthony Volpe flicked an RBI single into center, and tacked on in the

eighth, when Judge visited the short porch — the 326-foot shot the shortest of his career — for a two-run homer. “That one I’m kind of blowing out right there,” Judge, who only trails Shohei

Ohtani (17 homers), said with a laugh. “They all count the same.” The offensive supply became more than incidental when Ian Hamilton gave up a two-run homer to Heim with two outs in the

ninth. But Luke Weaver entered and recorded the final out for save No. 6 to ensure Warren’s work mattered. “Today and these last few starts,” Rice said of Warren, “he’s just seemed a lot

more confident out there.”