Clay Holmes blows 11th save of season as Yankees lose to Rangers on grand slam in ninth

ARLINGTON, Texas — A new and particularly unattractive candidate for Worst Yankees Loss of 2024 emerged from the shadows Tuesday night.

After the under-fire Alex Verdugo delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the seventh inning and Anthony Volpe came through with a two-out, two-run single in the eighth for a three-run lead, a key DJ LeMahieu error followed an inning later by Clay Holmes’ MLB-leading 11th blown save of the year sunk the Yankees in a 7-4 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

Rangers rookie centerfielder Wyatt Langford won it with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, crushing a full-count hanging slider to left.

“Just a loss of delivery there. Lost the feel for the sinker,” Holmes said of his best pitch. “Obviously, that one hurt. That was a tough one, but you have to bounce back and show what we’re made of tomorrow.”

After Holmes’ 10th blown save of the Aug. 18 in Williamsport, Pa., against the Tigers, manager Aaron Boone did not fully endorse keeping the righthander in his role as closer, saying he was open to other options.

Boone offered a similar non-endorsement Tuesday.

“I’m not going to answer that right now when we’re raw and emotional,” Boone said. “We’ll talk through it and do what we think is the best thing ... Stuff’s there, feel like he’s throwing the ball well. Tonight was a struggle, obviously.”

One issue for the Yankees (80-59), who fell a half game behind the Orioles in the AL East, is they lack an obvious alternative for closer. From a pure stuff standpoint, the leading candidates would probably be Jake Cousins, Luke Weaver and perhaps Tommy Kahnle. But taking a new closer for a spin during the cauldron of a pennant race poses its own set of potential problems.

Then again, the club may not have a choice other than going the closer-by-committee route in the coming weeks, undesirable as that may be.

“That’s tough. Baseball can be very cruel. It’s a cruel game. But I have a lot of faith in Clay Holmes,” said Carlos Rodon, who was brilliant over six innings in which he allowed one run, one hit and struck out a season-high 11. “He’s a good teammate, so he’s got all my support. I’m looking forward to seeing him out there again.”

The loss was telegraphed early in the ninth as Holmes, who retired the first batter he faced, allowed a one-out single to Carson Kelly. With Josh Smith up, pinch runner Leody Taveras stole second. Holmes walked Smith, turning the lineup back over to leadoff man Marcus Semien, who walked to load the bases. Langford then delivered the first walk-off grand slam by a Rangers rookie in franchise history.

The Yankees’ bullpen issues Tuesday didn’t start with Holmes.

Smith opened the bottom of the eighth against Kahnle with a high chopper off the plate to first, a ball LeMahieu, under fire from the fan base at an equal level to that of Verdugo, “lost in the lights,” Boone said, and mishandled for an error.

Cousins came on and Semien reached on an infield single. Cousins struck out Langford but Josh Jung, who homered in the fourth for the Rangers’ one hit off Rodon, hit a ground smash that second baseman Gleyber Torres ranged to his right for and seemed in position to make a terrific play, but couldn’t quite get his glove on the RBI single, making it 4-2. A sacrifice fly later in the inning by Nathaniel Lowe off lefthander Tim Hill made it 4-3.

Rangers lefthander Andrew Heaney, who would not rank among the best deadline deals of general manager Brian Cashman’s career (Heaney went 2-2 with a 7.32 ERA for the Yankees after being acquired at the deadline in 2021), allowed three hits and struck out eight in five-plus scoreless innings Tuesday.

The Yankees trailed 1-0 entering the seventh before scoring twice, tying it on a Jose Trevino groundout that brought in Jazz Chisholm Jr., who led off the inning with the first of his two hits in the game, and taking a 2-1 lead on Verdugo’s RBI single later in the inning.

But pretty much all of that — including Volpe’s moment made it 4-1 in the eighth — was overshadowed by Holmes’ continued difficulties in the ninth.

“We gotta do a better job finishing off games,” Boone said.