One of the most frustrating things you can watch your baseball team do is get given chances presented on a silver platter and do nothing with them, especially when they’re playing a bad team. Well, on Friday night, the Yankees showed exactly what a team should do in those situations.
In the second game of the series against the White Sox, the Yankees were the beneficiaries of nine walks and an error. After a bit of a slow start, they proceeded to add seven hits to that walk total, as they put up 10
runs. On the mound, Carlos Rodón was not perfect, but plenty good enough to get past Chicago. The Yankees picked up a sixth-straight win, as they downed the White Sox with a 10-2 victory. Combined with Boston’s loss to Paul Skenes and the Pirates, the Yanks are now in second in the AL East, three back of Toronto (who also fell to Milwaukee).
On the road to the 10-run mark, the Yankees did get on the board in the first inning, albeit in the most annoying way to do so. Former Yankee Yoendrys Gómez got off to a very wild start to the game, walking the first three batters on 18 total pitches. Unfortunately, Ben Rice went up there and swung at the first pitch. He grounded into a double play on it, although Trent Grisham did score. Naturally, Giancarlo Stanton then made good contact in the next at-bat, but just hit it right at a fielder.
A couple innings later, the Yankees did take advantage of the wildness. Giancarlo Stanton led off the fourth by reaching on a catcher’s interference on the White Sox Edgar Quero. Gómez then walked Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells to again load the bases. This time, Grisham made the most of it, going deep for a grand slam to break the game open.
Chicago did fight back somewhat after that, as they got on the board against Rodón in the fifth. While Rodón did pick up a couple outs in the process, both Andrew Benintendi and Michael A. Taylor singled. The second out coming on a grounder also moved the runners both into scoring position. Rodón did get Chase Meidroth to hit a ground ball to third, but it was a slow roller that Ryan McMahon couldn’t make a play on, allowing a run to score.
However after all that, the Yankees just struck right back anyway. Even the White Sox bullpen got in on the walks, as reliever Grant Taylor put on both Chisholm and McMahon. Anthony Volpe and Wells then added a single each bringing home a run a piece. Then after Aaron Judge drew a walk to load the bases, Rice cashed in with a single.
Rodón ran into some slight trouble in the sixth, giving up two singles. Aaron Boone came out of the dugout after the second, appearing to be ready to remove the starter after 5.2 frames. However, Rodón convinced him otherwise, and duly strike out Tim Elko to end the inning and get through six. In those six frames, he allowed just one run, scattering seven hits and two walks, striking out five.
Right after that, Volpe got the Yankees into double digits once again. His two-run homer following a McMahon single got the Yankees over the 10-run mark for the fourth time this week.
Fernando Cruz came in for the seventh, working around a leadoff single by Taylor. Tim Hill replaced him for the eighth, where the White Sox did get another run back but none further. Camilo Doval got the ninth, and did allow a single, albeit on a play at first that Rice probably should’ve done better on. He also walked a batter before finishing off a Yankees’ win.
Now looking to increase their win streak to seven, the Yankees will continue their weekend series against the White Sox tomorrow night at 7:10 p.m. ET. Cam Schlittler and Shane Smith are scheduled to be the starters for their respective teams.
