Stanton reaches 25 homers for 10th time and Cole exits with cramp as Yankees beat Texas 8-4

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton reached 25 homers for the 10th time in his big league career, Gerrit Cole struck out nine over six innings before his right calf cramped and the New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 8-4 on Monday night.

Gleyber Torres had three hits for the AL-leading Yankees, including a two-run double in the third inning that put them ahead to stay. Anthony Rizzo had a two-run double in their five-run sixth inning after Aaron Judge doubled for his MLB-best 124th RBI.

Before his last warmup pitch ahead of the seventh, Cole (6-3) lifted his right leg and tried to stretch. The Yankees ace and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner bent twice, threw the warmup, then hopped and signaled to the bench. Manager Aaron Boone and director of sports medicine Michael Shuck went to mound.

“Tried a couple things to get it to stop, and it just didn’t stop. So, didn’t seem like it was going to go away,” Cole said. “I wasn’t super concerned. I just didn’t think it was the right situation to keep trying to manipulate it out there.”

Cole, who turns 34 on Sunday, began this season on the 60-day injured list because of nerve irritation and edema in his throwing elbow during spring training. The right-hander, who didn't make his season debut until June 19, said he wasn't worried afterward since he only felt the cramps when following through on those warmup pitches.

Stanton homered to straightaway center leading off the eighth. He is the only active MLB player with 10 seasons of at least 25 homers.

“Remarkably consistent his entire career. ... Probably one of the best sluggers of my generation, for sure,” Cole said.

“It’s pretty cool. You know, something to add to whatever I can come up with in this career, but you know as long it helps us win, that’s what’s most important right now,” Stanton said.

The Yankees (80-58) remained a half-game ahead of Baltimore in the AL East. They had lost four of their previous five games.

With two on and two outs in the ninth, Torres made a diving backhand stop behind second base on Marcus Semien's grounder and threw to first for the out.

Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo, the bottom two batters in the Yankees lineup, had one-out singles in the third inning before Torres doubled for a 2-0 lead. Rookie right-hander Jack Leiter ended that inning when he struck out MLB home run leader Judge, who swung at and missed an 84 mph curveball.

Leiter (0-2) was pulled after Judge’s RBI double in the sixth that made it 3-1, and was the third consecutive hit to start that inning. Leiter struck out two and was charged with five runs.

The 24-year-old Leiter threw 25 sliders and didn't get a single swing and miss. Still, he pitched into the sixth inning for the first time in five big league starts.

“I felt good about my stuff. I felt like execution-wise, that’s the best it’s been, at least up here so far this year,” Leiter said. “So then it becomes a conversation of, you know, navigating lineups a little better and maybe pitch selection here or there."

Volpe and Leiter were high school teammates and part a state championship in 2019 at Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey. Both were first-round draft picks, Volpe by the Yankees that year and Leiter by Texas second overall in 2021 after he went to Vanderbilt.

Leiter's father, Al, played for the Yankees during his first three big league seasons (1987-89) and his last (2005). His cousin, Mark Leiter Jr., is a Yankees reliever.

The Yankees led 7-1 when Cole left the game. Luke Weaver took over, immediately allowing a single to Josh Jung and a homer to Wyatt Langford.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt (right lat strain) struck out seven without a walk while allowing two runs over 4 2/3 innings in a rehab start for Double-A Somerset. ... C Austin Wells stayed in the game after getting hit on a hand by a pitch while batting in the sixth.... RHP Luis Gil (lower back strain) is expected to rejoin the rotation this week. Gil (12-6, 3.39 ERA), whose last start for New York was on Aug. 20, threw 80 pitches in 3 2/3 innings in a rehab game for Somerset on Sunday.

Rangers: Cy Young Award winners Jacob deGrom (elbow surgery rehab) and Max Scherzer (shoulder fatigue/nerve issue) are both scheduled to make rehab starts Saturday. While deGrom is set to pitch for Double-A Frisco, he said there could be the option that night of making his first start for the Rangers since April 28, 2023. The plan is for Scherzer to pitch for Triple-A Round Rock in Las Vegas.

UP NEXT

A matchup of left-handers in the middle game of the series Tuesday night. Carlos Rodón (14-9, 4.31 ERA) pitches for the Yankees while Andrew Heaney (4-13, 3.95), who has allowed only one run over 10 innings in his last two starts, starts for Texas.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Texas Rangers' Josh Jung rounds second base on a home run hit by Wyatt Langford in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter stands in the dugout after being pulled in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, left, and teammate Juan Soto, right, celebrate after a win in a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

New York Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton runs the bases after hitting a solo home run in the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter, front right, hands the ball to manager Bruce Bochy, left, as catcher Jonah Heim, center, looks on in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

New York Yankees Jazz Chisolm Jr., right, watches his RBI single in the sixth inning as Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, center, and home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman, left, look on during a baseball game, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Texas Rangers in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge follows through on an RBI double in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

Texas Rangers' Marcus Semien (2) slides safely to home plate on a double hit by teammate Josh Smith in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter throws to the New York Yankees in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

New York Yankees' Gleyber Torres, left, follows through on a two-run double in the third inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

Stanton reaches 25 homers for 10th time and Cole exits with cramp as Yankees beat Texas 8-4

New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Texas Rangers in the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)

Stanton reaches 25 homers for 10th time and Cole exits with cramp as Yankees beat Texas 8-4

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Before he ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, David McCormick was a big name on Wall Street.

He was the CEO of the world's largest hedge fund, a world-traveled executive who was sought after for speaking engagements and prominent board positions.

His wealth and connections got him flagged by Republicans as someone who could both raise campaign cash and pay his own way for a Senate campaign.

But McCormick's Wall Street days haven't been such an asset of late. They provided grist for attacks by Republican primary rivals in McCormick's failed 2022 run for Senate and now by Democrats in his challenge to third-term Sen. Bob Casey.

Casey, in speeches and ads, hammers away at investments made by Bridgewater Associates while McCormick was CEO, including in Chinese companies that are considered part of Beijing's military and surveillance industrial complex.

“While I was fighting for union rights and fighting for working families in Pennsylvania, he was making a lot of money investing in China," Casey recently told a union crowd at a Teamsters hall in suburban Harrisburg. "He not only invested in Chinese companies, he invested in companies that built the Chinese military."

McCormick declined an interview request.

The need to fend off accusations that he profited at America’s expense comes at an unfortunate time for McCormick as China's relationship with Washington has grown increasingly tense.

But Bridgewater was hardly alone.

U.S. investment in Chinese companies surged while McCormick was Bridgewater’s CEO as hedge funds, institutional investors and fund managers plunged money into those same companies.

Some still do, according to a congressional report released this year after both the Trump and Biden administrations tried to block American investment in what they viewed as China's military and surveillance apparatus.

America's political community soured on China as early as 2016, but the U.S. financial sector “plowed right through that,” said Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington who served on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The economic ties extend beyond Wall Street. Semiconductor companies, farmers, tech and others in manufacturing rely on China for customers or components, Scissors said.

As Bridgewater’s CEO in 2019, McCormick described China as America’s “most defining bilateral relationship of our time,” even as calls began in Washington to block American investments in Chinese companies that could pose a threat to U.S. security.

As a candidate, McCormick has described China as an “existential” threat to the United States. He called for the federal government to develop a comprehensive strategy for America to outperform China economically and technologically, and said his experience with China means he can go “toe to toe” with its government on trade issues.

But McCormick also defends himself, both minimizing Bridgewater’s investments in China, saying it was 2% of the company’s assets, and describing investment in China as “unavoidable” because of client expectations and the rapid growth of that country's economy.

In a book he published last year, he wrote: “As is, U.S. dollars finance Communist China’s most egregious acts and ambitions.”

While campaigning, McCormick barely talks about his time at the hedge fund. If he mentions it at all, he tells audiences he ran a “financial firm” or an “investment firm.”

Instead, he dwells on other entries on his resume. Those include playing football and wrestling in high school, graduating from the U.S. military academy at West Point and serving with the Army in the first Gulf War, where he won a Bronze Star.

But if he is not talking up his Wall Street days, Wall Street does not seem to care. In his two campaigns for Senate, super political action committees that support McCormick have raised tens of millions of dollars and counting from the finance world.

McCormick, 59, earned a Ph.D from Princeton University, ran the online auction house FreeMarkets Inc., which had its name on a skyscraper in Pittsburgh during the tech boom, and served in senior positions in President George W. Bush’s administration.

There, he likes to say, he gained a reputation as a tough negotiator with the Chinese when tasked with Commerce Department policy over export controls of sensitive technologies.

When Bridgewater Associates hired McCormick in 2009 to be president, its founder, Ray Dalio, had a reputation for being bullish on China.

Today, Bridgewater is as prominent as any foreign investment firm in China.

Regulatory disclosures in China show that it has at least 10 billion renminbi — or at least $1.4 billion, and maybe much more — invested in Chinese assets there, said Harry Handley, a senior associate at Z-Ben Advisors, a financial advisory firm based in Shanghai.

That is the most of any foreign firm, Handley said.

McCormick, who was an executive at Bridgewater for 12 years, joined the company when investment banks, venture capital firms and hedge funds were fueling an investment boom in a growing Chinese economy.

“The Chinese economy was doing well for a long time and there was money to be made there,” said Greg Brown, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of finance who researches hedge funds.

McCormick spent his last five years at Bridgewater as co-CEO or CEO, and those were big years for investing in China. That is when Chinese regulators relaxed restrictions over foreign investment in stocks and bonds, unleashing several years of particularly heavy investment, Brown and others say.

Bridgewater forged a reputation among foreign firms as an aggressive investor in Chinese companies — "over the past few years they’ve kind of dominated among the global firms in China," Handley said — and reputedly handled money for the Chinese government.

In early 2022, McCormick left Bridgewater to run for Senate in Pennsylvania in a seven-way GOP primary.

Bridgewater's connections with China followed him.

In one attack by a Republican primary rival, a video by Mehmet Oz 's campaign showed “finance bros” Chad and Tad at a bar when Tad asks Chad, “Do you think saying ‘I invest in China’ is a good pickup line?” Chad responds, “Investing in foreign adversaries always plays!”

At a rally days before the 2022 primary, former President Donald Trump, aiming to help Oz, his endorsed candidate, derided McCormick as having been with a company that “managed money for communist China."

McCormick lost narrowly to Oz.

This summer, Casey's campaign launched two ads that ran in Pennsylvania’s major TV markets attacking McCormick over Bridgewater's investments in companies tied to China’s military.

“Dave McCormick sold us out to make a fortune,” say hard-hatted speakers in one ad. “That’s the real Dave McCormick.”

McCormick has tried to tie Casey to China, saying Casey had money invested in Chinese companies through mutual funds and that the Casey-supported clean-energy policies of the Biden administration are making the U.S. more reliant on Chinese lithium batteries and solar panels.

Meanwhile, each candidate is trying to show that he is the tougher one on China. That has put the contrast between McCormick the CEO and McCormick the candidate into sharp relief, with McCormick explicitly calling for an end to U.S. investment in technologies in China that are critical to national security or tied to its military.

“McCormick has changed his tune because he’s a political type,” Scissors said. “If he was in the business community, he’d still be pushing for relations with China. Because that’s what they do.”

Follow Marc Levy at https://x.com/timelywriter.

This combination of photos taken in Pennsylvania shows Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., left, at a campaign event, Sept. 13, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, and David McCormick, the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, at a campaign event, April 25, 2024, in Harrisburg. (AP Photo)