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Rangers snap eight-game losing streak against Yankees

May 10, 2007 - 10:15 PM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Nearly a year's worth of frustration for the Texas Rangers against the New York Yankees was erased by Mark Teixeira.

Teixeira went 4-for-5 with three RBI as the Rangers pounded out a season-high 16 hits and ended an eight-game losing streak against the Yankees with a 14-2 rout on Thursday.

It was Texas' first victory over New York since last May 18 at Yankee Stadium. It also was just their third win in the last 21 games against the Yankees.

"We haven't been playing very well against these guys and obviously they're a great team," Teixeira said. "So it felt good to get one today."

"Not so much beat these guys, but it feels good to get a win," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It's a game on the schedule. I'm very happy with the way we came out. We hit, we played and hit and ran the bases."

Teixeira, who is hitting .455 (15-for-33) in his last eight games, had a career-high three doubles. He had an RBI single in Texas' three-run fifth and a two-run double in a three-run seventh.

Teixeira was hardly the only hitting star for Texas, which had scored just 10 runs in its first five games versus the Yankees this year. Gerald Laird and Sammy Sosa also had three hits apiece.

Laird, who missed Wednesday's game with a bruised left hip, tripled and broke for the plate on Brad Wilkerson's grounder to Alex Rodriguez. The superstar third baseman elected to go for the out at home but Laird avoided getting tagged out in a rundown and just eluded Rodriguez's tag at the plate to give Texas a 2-1 lead.

"It was still kind of tight but I was just like I'm going to go, boy I'm not going to worry about and go out and play," Laird said. "I had seen some opportunities to take the extra base and that's what I did."

"That might have been the game-changer, really," Teixeira said. "That gave us a little bit of momentum, got things going for us."

Wilkerson took second on the play and scored on Teixeira's single. Sosa, who was 7-for-12 in the series, followed with a base hit to put Texas ahead 4-1.

Texas put the game away with 10 runs in the seventh and eighth.

"A close game turned into a slaughter," Yankees center fielder Johnny Damon said. "We gave them some chances and they capitalized."

Teixeira and Hank Blalock delivered consecutive RBI doubles in the seventh.

One inning later, Jerry Hairston and Wilkerson had run-scoring singles before Teixeira produced his third double of the game, putting the Rangers up 10-2. With a sizable advantage, manager Ron Washington lifted Blalock for pinch hitter Victor Diaz.

The former New York Mets outfielder capped the scoring with a grand slam to right center field. It was the first pinch hit grand slam for the Rangers since Blalock did it in July 2004.

All the offense proved to be more than enough for Texas starter Brandon McCarthy (3-4), who entered the game with a 7.96 ERA and had not made it past the third inning in his previous three starts.

"For the most part, I had everything I needed to have," McCarthy said. "Fastball command was there and that's first and foremost but secondly the changeup was there. I could throw behind in the count, ahead in the count, keep it down, not get hurt with it and I really changed things up between speeds on my fastball and the curveball was there when I needed it and a couple of sliders mixed in. Overall, it was definitely about as good as you can ask for."

McCarthy allowed just Melky Cabrera's home run among five hits but also ran into trouble with one out in the sixth. He gave up a double to Derek Jeter, walked Rodriguez and Washington brought in Frank Francisco.

"He (McCarthy) certainly had been over 100 pitches right there," Washington said. "He had given us everything we wanted out of him until that point. I didn't want to see him make a pitch and the game get tied up at that point."

Francisco preserved the three-run lead by retiring Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada. He allowed an unearned run in the seventh and Willie Eyre and Eric Gagne pitched an inning apiece.

Texas had struggled to get two-out hits in this series but took a 1-0 lead when Kenny Lofton walked, stole second and scored on Sosa's two-out base hit.

The Yankees tied it in the third on Melky Cabrera's first home run of the season. It was his first since August 10 and coincidentally it was off McCarthy, who was with the Chicago White Sox at the time.

Five days after being five outs away from a perfect game against Seattle, Chien-Ming Wang (1-3) was not nearly as effective. In 6 1/3 innings, he allowed a career-high tying seven runs and 11 hits.

"I know you have to live up to yourself, but you certainly shouldn't expect another perfect game," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "He pitched well enough to get a win in this game, but we didn't hit and we didn't execute. He was the victim."

The Yankees (16-17) lost for just the fourth time in their last 12 games. They also failed to climb above .500 for the first time since April 20.