MLB

• Role reversal: Ex-Ranger Ponson tries to halt Yankees' slide

  
  

  (Sports Network) - Despite his success this year, the Texas Rangers felt that Sidney Ponson wasn't a good fit for their club. He gets a chance to show his former team what it lost tonight, when the right-hander tries to help the New York Yankees avoid a sweep at the hands of Texas in the finale of a three-game set in the Bronx.

  Ponson was 4-1 with a 3.88 earned run average in nine starts with the Rangers before being designated for assignment on June 6 by the club after a series of transgressions.

  Those include a reported incident at a bar in Florida and a poor reaction to being taken out early of a June 4 test in what ended up being his final start with the team.

  The 31-year-old was pitching on three days rest for the first time in his career -- something he was not happy about -- and gave up six runs (2 earned) on eight hits over just four innings against Cleveland in that June 4 start. Two days later, the Rangers deemed him a clubhouse disruption and cut him loose.

  Ponson then signed a minor league deal with New York in mid-June, returning to the club he spent part of the 2006 season with, and made his first start for the Yankees this year on Friday versus the Mets. The 31-year-old was a winner in that one, throwing six shutout innings that saw him allow five hits and four walks.

  Ponson is 8-2 with a 4.82 ERA in 17 career games, including 15 starts, against the Rangers.

  The Yankees will hope their new addition can help them avoid getting swept by Texas for the first time since May 16-18, 2003, which also took place in the Bronx.

  The Rangers are in position to post the sweep after winning a pair of one-run games, including Tuesday's 3-2 victory.

  Chris Davis and Jarrod Saltalamacchia drove in runs for the Rangers, while Michael Young plated Ian Kinsler with a single up the middle off Mariano Rivera (2-3) in the ninth inning for the go-ahead run.

  Kinsler extended his hitting streak to 14 games in the win, batting .421 (24- for-57) in that span to up his season average to an AL-best .324. Meanwhile, Milton Bradley, who led the AL in batting for much of the season, snapped an 0-for-9 skid coming into the game by going 2-for-4. He is still hitting just .222 (8-for-36) over his last 13 games, dropping his average to .321.

  Texas is now three games over .500 (44-41) for the first time since September 18, 2006, when it was 77-74.

  New York has now lost the first two tests of its current nine-game homestand that next draws the rival Boston Red Sox.

  Wilson Betemit tied last night's game with an RBI single in the sixth inning, while Robinson Cano had two hits and an RBI in the Yanks' third straight loss. New York has scored only four runs over its current skid.

  Cano, though, is hitting .414 (12-for-29) over his last seven games with two homers and eight RBI, upping his season average from .227 to .245 in that time.

  The Yankees' offense will face Luis Mendoza, who returns to Texas' rotation due to an injury to Kason Gabbard.

  Mendoza began the season in the Rangers' starting five, but went 0-2 with a 9.31 ERA before landing on the disabled list due to right shoulder inflammation.

  The 24-year-old then landed in Triple-A before returning to the majors in the bullpen.

  He earned a win and a save in three games in relief and has tossed a total of seven shutout innings since being recalled.

  The right-handed Mendoza is 1-2 with a save and 5.40 ERA on the year and has never faced the Yankees.

  Texas has now won three straight over New York after dropping its first five 2007 tests against the Yankees. New York has still won eight of the last 11 overall matchups in the series. However, all five of Texas' wins against the Yankees since 2006 have come in the Bronx (5-4).

  07/02 11:13:23 ET