Gleyber Torres went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Gerrit Cole was effective through six innings to help the New York Yankees earn an 8-4 win against the host Texas Rangers on Monday in Arlington, Texas.
Cole (6-3) held Texas to one run on four hits and struck out nine. He left the game at the start of the seventh inning after experiencing a right calf cramp while warming up.
The win kept the Yankees (80-58) a half-game ahead of the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the American League East.
The Rangers (65-73) lost for only the second time in their past seven games.
Texas starting pitcher Jack Leiter (0-2) retired eight straight batters after giving up a two-run double to Torres in the third inning but got into trouble in the sixth, and New York capitalized.
Torres and Juan Soto each singled to open the inning, and Torres scored on Aaron Judge’s double to make it 3-1. That ended Leiter’s outing, replaced by reliever Chase Anderson.
Anderson then caught Austin Wells with a fastball to load the bases.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled to drive in Soto and push it to 4-1, and Anthony Rizzo’s double brought in Judge and Wells to extend the lead to 6-1.
With Anthony Volpe at the plate, Chisholm scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-1.
Leiter allowed five runs on seven hits in five-plus innings.
Texas’ Wyatt Langford sent a two-run shot into the left field seats to narrow it to 7-3 in the seventh inning, but Giancarlo Stanton responded for New York in the eighth with a solo shot.
Josh Jung cut it to 8-4 when he scored on Jonah Heim’s groundout in the ninth.
In the third, Volpe, facing high school teammate Leiter for the first time in the majors, knocked a single to right field in his first at-bat. Alex Verdugo followed with another single, and Torres brought the pair in with his double to left field.
The Rangers got on the board in the bottom half when Josh Smith doubled to drive in Marcus Semien.