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Teixeira, Yankees pummel Rangers

Jun 16, 2011 - 5:10 AM Bronx, NY (Sports Network) - Mark Teixeira went 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBI, clubbing the New York Yankees past the Texas Rangers by a 12-4 margin for the second straight game.

Eduardo Nunez and Ramiro Pena each had two hits, including solo homers, while Robinson Cano added a three-run shot for the Yankees, winners in five of their last six games.

Ivan Nova (6-4) was credited with the win after giving up four runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Derek Holland (5-2) was blasted for six runs on seven hits and five walks in his five innings of work for Texas, which has been outscored 38-10 during a season-high four-game losing streak.

"We need somebody to go out there and pitch a good game," a frustrated Ron Washington said of his Rangers club.

Josh Hamilton went 3-for-5 with a run scored and another driven in, while Ian Kinsler homered, singled and walked twice in a losing effort.

Andruw Jones broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI single in the fifth and scored later in the frame on a Francisco Cervelli base hit.

The two-run lead held up in the top of the sixth after Cervelli received Curtis Granderson's throw on Elvis Andrus' two-out hit to center and blocked home plate to prevent Yorvit Torrealba from scoring from second.

Mark Lowe relieved Holland in the bottom half and was greeted by Pena's first home run since September 29, 2009. Two batters after Nick Swisher walked, Teixeira belted his second home run of the game, this time from the left side after hammering one as a right-handed hitter in the first inning.

"It's not easy, that's why I think it's so special," said Teixeira of going deep from both sides of the plate.

Teixeira's second homer was his 21st of the year, tying him with Granderson and Toronto's Jose Bautista for the major league lead.

Cano tacked on a three-run homer off Neftali Feliz in the eighth to punctuate the rout.

Both teams scored twice in their first at-bat. Hamilton's RBI single and Michael Young's run-scoring groundout gave Texas a short-lived lead, as Teixeira followed a Granderson plunking with a no-doubter to left.

Kinsler followed Granderson's RBI groundout in the second with a leadoff home run to center in the third. Adrian Beltre's sacrifice fly later in the inning plated Hamilton for a 4-3 lead.

Nunez, who turned 24 on Wednesday, tied the game again in the fourth with a solo blast to left.

Game Notes

Teixeira has homered from both sides of the plate in the same game 11 times in his career, tying Chili Davis and Eddie Murray for the most such games all time. This was the 31st multi-home run game of his career...Holland's only two losses this year have come against the Yankees. He fell to 0-4 lifetime against them...Alex Rodriguez scored the go-ahead run on Jones' single in the fifth and in doing so tied Ted Williams for 16th place all time in runs scored (1,799)...Young went 1-for-3 and has a 17-game regular season hitting streak in New York, one behind the longest stretch by an opponent there since 1950...The Yankees hit five home runs and collected five steals for the first time in the live ball era (since 1920)...The Yankees lead the season series, 6-2.