Tuesday night’s 3-0 loss to the Yankees in the Bronx was tough to watch for any Rangers fan, as the Texas bats fell silent against New York starter Hiroki Kuroda. Kuroda would finish with a win and a two-hit shutout, but perhaps the aforementioned Rangers fans can take solace in the fact that, according to the Yankees’ skipper, that was about as good as a Yankee pitcher has been all season.
“This is a very good lineup that he just shut down,” Manager Joe Girardi said, per the Dallas Morning News. “Probably our best pitching performance of the year.”
Kuroda tossed six innings of no-hit baseball before Elvis Andrus broke up the no-no with an infield single to lead off the seventh. Andrus reached third before being stranded, and that was the closest the Rangers got to sniffing the scoreboard all evening, as they dropped their second straight to the AL East leaders.
“He was tough,” said Josh Hamilton, who went 0-3 with a strikeout in the loss. “Anybody is going to be tough if they don’t really have to throw strikes to get you out. He didn’t expand the zone a lot, but he expanded it just enough to get us swinging. So he did a good job.”
