Brett Gardner had four hits to go with a tremendous sliding catch and the Yankees held on for a 12-11 victory at Texas on Tuesday night in spite of J.P. Arencibia's seven RBIs.
Arencibia homered twice, including a grand slam in the seventh, for Texas. He also had two doubles to be the first Rangers player with four extra-base hits since Josh Hamilton's four-homer game at Baltimore on May 8, 2012.
The last player with at least seven RBIs in a loss was Jonathan Lucroy in 2012, when Milwaukee fell to the Cubs, STATS said.
Gardner had a leadoff homer and two doubles, and he reached base twice in a seven-run sixth that put the Yankees ahead to stay.
He started the inning with a double and scored on Carlos Beltran's two run-single, then reached on a three-base error that deflected off two outfielders and sent home the rally's final run.
Brandon McCarthy (3-0) went six innings for the Yankees, who have won all four of his starts since getting the big right-hander in a trade from Arizona on July 6.
David Robertson, the fifth New York pitcher, got his 27th save in 29 chances even after walking three and allowed two hits in the ninth. Elvis Andrus had a two-run single before Adrian Beltre's game-ending flyball to Gardner in deep left with the bases loaded.
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Mark Teixeira hit his 18th homer in his first start for New York in nine games after a back strain. He walked three times and scored three runs.
Gardner led off the game against rookie Nick Martinez (1-7) with his 13th homer. Gardner went deep twice Monday off Yu Darvish.
Texas led 4-1 after Arencibia's solo homer in the fifth. He had a two-run double in the third, the inning that started with Gardner's running, sliding catch on a ball Shin Soo-Choo sliced into the left-field corner.
New York went up 5-4 when Zolio Almonte hit an RBI single on reliever Shawn Tolleson's first pitch after relieving Martinez. Brendan Ryan had a two-run double before Gardner's flyball into right-center field gap.
Right fielder Alex Rios was calling for the ball when he reached for it, but closed his glove too soon. The ball ricocheted off the back of his glove and then off the head of center fielder Leonys Martin, who was also in pursuit.
