In the span of about six and a half long hours on a day filled with baseball, the Yankees showed flashes of the peak of their powers, a team that could out-talent others all the way to the World Series.
And flashes of what could go wrong along the way for a club that still has holes.
An 8-0 win backed by Austin Wells, Aaron Judge and Carlos Rodon, followed by a 9-4, ugly loss to the Rangers that included a five-run, sixth-inning implosion, amounted to a doubleheader split in The Bronx for the Yankees (69-49), who have won nine of 13 and generally righted themselves after a lengthy malaise.
But on the other end of the trade deadline, there are still concerns about the team’s rotation, bullpen and offense’s ability to hit lefties, all of which mattered in a miserable nightcap.
The positive first: The Yankees initially showed the kind of powerful and deep lineup that can do damage in October.
Judge reached base in four of five plate appearances in the opener and saw 35 pitches, which made the job of the batters behind him easier.
Gleyber Torres’ first-inning RBI single gave the Yankees the lead, and Wells’ two-run single and two-run double helped put the game away.
The Yankees knocked out Nathan Eovaldi after just three innings with six hits — several timely — in a game that rarely was in doubt.
“We were having some really solid at-bats against [Eovaldi],” said Wells, who looks natural in the cleanup hole. “They wore him down pretty good.”
Batting fourth, Wells has hit .362 (21-for-58) with six runs, three doubles, a triple, two homers and 13 RBIs in 14 games.
“I think it’s worked out so far,” Wells said of his spot in the lineup.
Wells was out of the lineup for the second game, replaced by Giancarlo Stanton in the No. 4 hole for a team that was trying to match up against Cody Bradford.
The team’s struggles against lefties resurfaced.
The Yankees entered play with just a .705 OPS against southpaws, which was the 13th worst in MLB and far worse than their majors-best .796 OPS against righties.
They again showed little pulse against a lefty, knocking just four singles in five innings against Bradford and only scoring one manufactured run: Chisholm singled in the second inning, stole second and scored on a Torres single.
The Yankees didn’t score again until back-to-back homers from Stanton and Chisholm (his second of the day) in the eighth, which qualified as garbage time because the hole was too steep.
Wasted was a strong, if abbreviated, start from Gerrit Cole, as the Yankees unraveled once Cole was lifted in the sixth.
The Yankees have questions in their bullpen and a starting third baseman who is still learning third base, both of which mattered in the wild inning.
The normally solid Luke Weaver replaced Cole and served up singles to Josh Lowe and Adolis Garcia.
Leody Taveras followed with a gapper to right-center that Juan Soto did well to get to and nearly completed a remarkable diving catch, but he couldn’t hold on.
Lowe and Garcia had to stay near their respective bases until they saw the ball drop.
Soto threw to Torres, who threw a strike to third base, where Chisholm just had to touch the base — but instead he tried to tag Lowe, and a Rangers challenge found that Chisholm was too late in his tag.
The inexperience for the shortstop turned center fielder turned third baseman loomed large when Josh Smith drove a sacrifice fly to right before Corey Seager’s three-run dinger essentially ended the game.
The problems were not over for the Yankees’ bullpen, as Michael Tonkin let up five straight two-out hits and three runs in the seventh inning to turn it into a laugher.
Go beyond the box score with the Bombers
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The Yankees’ starting pitching was a bright spot, albeit not blindingly so.
Both Rodon (5 ⅔ innings, no runs, three hits, five walks, six strikeouts) and Cole (5 ⅓ innings, six hits, one run, two walks, 10 strikeouts) got into trouble and generally struck their way out of it.
Cole’s stuff was excellent, and he found better command as the night wore on.
For the first time this season the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner struck out double-digits (10) in an outing he recorded just 16 outs.
He threw 90 pitches, though, two starts removed from his spot in the rotation getting skipped because of general body fatigue.
Like Rodon earlier in the day, Cole was at his best in big moments.
He held Texas to 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and danced his way into and out of trouble.
The real trouble started once he left.