ARLINGTON — A dawn arrival in Texas after an extra-inning loss in Boston had the Yankees looking for a closet of caffeine today at Rangers Ballpark.
Due to the immense ineptness of the schedule maker, the Yankees played a night game at Fenway Park, boarded a 3 a.m. plane at Logan Airport and arrived at their Dallas hotel shortly after 6 a.m Central Time.
When the Yankees woke without Alex Rodriguez, there was Yu Darvish waiting for them. The combination of fatigue and the hard-throwing right-hander proved too much for the offensively challenged visitors, who dropped a 3-0 decision in front of 42,058 who sat in 99-degree heat for the first pitch.
The loss was the Yankees’ fifth in sixth games and went to Ivan Nova, who pitched almost as well as Darvish.
Darvish pitched for the first time since July 6 after visiting the disabled list due to a strained right trapezius muscle, and he didn’t look rusty.
In 6 ¹/3 innings, Darvish (9-4) didn’t allow a run, gave up two hits — both to Lyle Overbay — walked two, hit one and fanned four. The Yankees finished with just three hits.
Nova (4-3) gave up three runs and seven hits in seven innings.
Overbay’s second single came in the seventh with one out and was followed by Vernon Wells drawing a walk.
But Darvish terminated the threat by feeding the ice-cold Travis Hafner a 4-6-3 double-play ball to keep the Rangers’ lead at 2-0.
Nelson Cruz’s 23rd homer with two outs in the seventh increased the Rangers’ lead to 3-0.
Elvis Andrus’ one-out walk led to a sixth-inning run that stretched the Rangers’ lead to 2-0. Andrus stole second and scored on Geovany Soto’s two-out double to right-center off a 94-mph fastball from Nova. Leonys Martin followed with a single to right and Soto stopped at third.
Chris Stewart ended the rally by throwing out Martin trying to steal second base.
george.king@nypost.com