Rangers blast past Yankees, 10-3

Reporting from New York

The upstart, under-respected Texas Rangers, who started as the laughingstock Washington Senators, are one victory away from their first World Series.

And they have three chances to do it, starting Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, where they already have won Games 3 and 4 of the American League Championship Series.

Their latest triumph was a 10-3 rout Tuesday night over a New York Yankees team that has been outpitched and outhit while going down three games to one.

Bengie Molina hit a key three-run home run to give the Rangers a 5-3 lead, and Josh Hamilton hit two solo shots, giving him four homers for the series.

Game 5 features a rematch of the first game, with C.J. Wilson trying to eliminate the defending World Series champions and CC Sabathia, trying to get the series back to Texas on Friday.

“We’re not thinking about how we’re going close anyone out,” Rangers Manager Ron Washington said. “We’re thinking about playing baseball. … We come to the ballpark ready to play baseball and react to whatever we have to. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Things are simple for Yankees Manager Joe Girardi.

“Win, just win a game,” Girardi said of the game plan. “And then you go from there. It’s a very tough-minded group. They’ve bounced back many times. We have great leadership and we’ll find a way to get it done.”

The Yankees are hitting .198 for the series and their pitching staff has a 7.71 earned-run average.

The Yankee most responsible for the low batting average was No. 3 hitter Mark Teixeira, who was 0 for 14 when he left the game with a pulled right hamstring in the fifth inning. He had an MRI exam and most likely will not play Wednesday.

Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher are a combined three for 44 in this series.

The hero of the Rangers’ pitching staff Tuesday was Derek Holland, who pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for starter Tommy Hunter.

Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, who hadn’t appeared in a game since Oct. 2 while being bypassed in the division series, kept the Rangers from scoring in the first inning for the first time this series.

But he showed effects of rust when giving up two third-inning runs. He walked the first batter and hit the second and both scored, although the Rangers never got the ball out of the infield.

Burnett put his team behind 5-3 in the sixth inning when he gave up a towering three-run homer to Molina. Burnett intentionally walked David Murphy right before Molina hit the next pitch into the left-field stands.

Texas increased its lead to 7-3 before Rangers relievers held on through a scary eighth inning. They walked the bases loaded, then Darren Oliver, who walked two batters in the Yankees’ Game 1 rally, got the final two outs.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a home run by Robinson Cano, one questioned by Washington because of what he claimed was fan interference. Umpires huddled but chose not to look at the replay.

Two batters later, Lance Berkman belted a pitch from Hunter past the right-field foul pole. Umpire Jim Reynolds called it fair, but Washington complained again and this time umpires went inside to review the play. It was reversed and Berkman eventually struck out.

Molina, perhaps, has the best perspective of where things stand now.

“My opinion was that we were supposed to lose, so let’s just go out and have fun,” Molina said.

dvandyck@tribune.com