Ryan Yanked in First Try : Milestone: Rangers’ rally comes too late to help pitcher gain his 300th victory. Next start will be Monday or Tuesday in Milwaukee.

At the time of his departure Wednesday night, Nolan Ryan was closer to his 268th career loss than his 300th victory.

The fact that he didn’t get either represented a strange turn of events in his first bid for the milestone figure attained by only 19 other pitchers.

The 43-year-old Ryan, 10-4 on the season and seeking his sixth consecutive victory, gave up 10 hits and seven runs to the New York Yankees and was losing, 7-3, when he left after eight innings.

His Texas Rangers then staged an improbable rally that resulted in a 9-7, 11-inning victory that went to relief pitcher Ken Rogers, who allowed only one hit over the final three innings and is now 4-5 on the season and 7-9 for his career.

Those weren’t the numbers the partisans in a sellout crowd of 41,954 at Arlington Stadium had in mind when Ryan went to work, but those that hadn’t left when Rogers appeared to pitch the ninth cheered wildly as the Rangers roared back, taking Ryan off the hook.

The celebrated right-hander is now scheduled to make his second try for 300 either Monday or Tuesday night in Milwaukee.

The Rangers return to Arlington for a four-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays starting Thursday night, but Ryan said he didn’t know if the rotation would be juggled to allow him to make his second bid at home.

“We’re trying to win as many games as possible, so I presume we won’t change everyone’s schedule,” he said. “I don’t want this thing to drag out or a cloud to develop by having to make three or four starts before I get it, so having failed tonight my next goal is to try and get it done in Milwaukee.”

Ryan said he had good stuff but poor location against the Yankees. He felt that the stress fracture in his lower back wasn’t a problem.

“I made too many bad pitches with my fastball,” he said. “I was ahead in the count but had poor command.

“Almost every one of their big hits came on fastballs that were either up in the strike zone or had too much of the plate.’

With the eyes of Texas--as well as a national television audience--on him, Ryan said he wanted this game as much as any game this year.

“When you have so many people behind you and personally involved in what you’re doing, the last thing you want to do is pitch poorly.

“I’m very disappointed that I wasn’t the winning pitcher considering the amount of support I received. Any time I get three or four runs, I feel I should win.

“But, in fact, I almost took us out of the game and it took a special effort to come back. It would have been easy for the guys to have an emotional letdown after I came out because they had been as pumped up as I’ve ever seen them.”

Restricted by Yankee starter Dave LaPoint, whose offspeed repertoire is ice compared to Ryan’s fire, to a two-run single by Pete Incaviglia in the first and a solo run stemming from Steve Buechele’s double in the seventh, the Rangers tied it dramatically with two out in the ninth.

Dave Righetti, who had blown only two of 22 previous save opportunities, was within one out of saving another when Ruben Sierra singled in a run to make it 7-5 and Incaviglia belted a two-run homer to tie it.

Rookie Mark Leiter, who made his major league debut Tuesday night, was pitching in the 11th when Rafael Palmeiro slammed a two-run homer for the unlikely victory.

Ryan delivered 141 pitches as Manager Bobby Valentine kept sending him out in a vain hope the Rangers could come from behind before he would have to leave.

Ryan struck out nine, walked three and averaged 94 miles per hour on the speed gun, but he lost a 2-1 lead in the fourth on solo homers by Kevin Maas and Roberto Kelly and never got even.

Catcher Bob Geren, who came in with six homers and 19 runs batted in, made it 5-2 with a two-run single in the sixth and 7-3 with a two-out, two-run homer in the eighth, Ryan’s last inning.

The Yankees entered the game last in the American League in hits and runs and burdened with the worst record in the major leagues, but Ryan had been concerned with the anonymous nature of a lineup that included four rookies and was devoid of Don Mattingly, who is scheduled to have a chronic back problem re-examined in New York today and may be lost for the season, Manager Stump Merrill said.

“They have a lot of new names, and that’s good and bad,” Ryan said of the Yankees before the game.

“I would prefer to know who they are, know what they hit and what I have to throw to get them out.”

Ryan would soon acquire a degree of familiarity, but it may have bred only contempt.

The rookies treated the venerable Ryan with disdain, the 10 Yankee hits matching the most Ryan had allowed in 17 previous starts this year and the seven runs matching the most he had allowed in two years with Texas.

In addition, Ryan had allowed only nine home runs in 104 1/3 innings this year before yielding three to a team now known as the Bronx Bummers.

Ryan probably wanted to re-read the scouting report as early as the first inning when rookie Deion Sanders opened the game by lining a two-strike triple into the right-field corner and scored on Steve Sax’s infield grounder.

His problems with the other Yankee rookies included the homer by Maas, his seventh in 54 at-bats, a double and single by Oscar Azocar, and a key single by Jim Leyritz in the sixth, when Geren later delivered his bases-loaded single.

Two walks played a part in that inning, and Ryan had two outs in the eighth when he walked Kelly before yielding the homer to Geren that put 300 out of reach for this night.