ARLINGTON, Texas — The beaten, battered and bruised Yankees are finally heading home.
But not before they endured an absolute shellacking to cap off a brutal road trip.
The Rangers teed off on Nestor Cortes and the bullpen, and the Yankees’ shorthanded offense continued to scuffle in a third straight loss, 15-2, on Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Field.
The beatdown was a fitting end to a 2-5 road trip in which the Yankees lost Aaron Judge to a hip injury that forced the reigning AL MVP to miss the final three and a half games — and possibly more to come, though that decision will not come until Monday.
By the end of the trip, the Yankees (15-14) had fallen into a last-place tie in the AL East with the Red Sox and eight games back of the red-hot Rays, whom they will face later this week.
Without Judge for all but three and a half innings of this series, the Yankees combined to muster just eight runs across four games.
They have now scored four runs or fewer in 15 of their last 18 games.
Cortes had one of the worst starts of his career, giving up seven runs on three home runs and four walks — all of which tied career-highs — across 4 ²/₃ innings.
The left-hander struggled with his command from the get-go and threw only 55 of his 100 pitches for strikes.
The Rangers (16-11) jumped ahead early, drawing a pair of walks in the first inning before loading the bases for Josh Jung, who crushed a 2-2 fastball into the right-field seats for a grand slam that put the Rangers up 4-0.
The Yankees got a run back in the third inning on an RBI groundout from Oswald Peraza, but that was the only time they touched left-hander Martin Perez across his six innings of work.
Their offensive woes were summed up in the fifth inning, when they faced four pitches, had two hits and did not score.
Kyle Higashioka and Aaron Hicks both hit first-pitch singles before Anthony Volpe flew out and Peraza grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Rangers then piled on with a four-spot in the fifth inning, including back-to-back home runs off Cortes by Nathaniel Lowe and Adolis Garcia.
Albert Abreu relieved Cortes and instantly gave up a 433-foot home run to Jonah Heim that made it an 8-1 Rangers lead.
Abreu later issued four walks in the sixth inning — including three straight with two outs — allowing the Rangers to push across six more runs to score their second touchdown of the day with a 14-1 lead.