The Yankees have been winning lately, but one thing they haven’t been doing is winning big. Even their four-run win against the White Sox two nights ago was unnecessarily complicated due to bad defense in the ninth inning. As such, the team was without the services of David Bednar, Angel Chivilli, and Brent Headrick in a game they hoped wouldn’t be close early on.
A four-run first inning, powered by a three-run shot by Spencer Jones, threatened to take out Davis Martin early for the second straight
outing after the bludgeoning they gave him in June. With Cam Schlittler on the mound, it seemed like smooth sailing. But the offense went cold, and the White Sox got a chance to nip at that vulnerable, exhausted bullpen and didn’t miss the chance. Two homers off Paul Blackburn and typical Yankees road extras shenanigans resulted in a long, 6-5 loss in 12 innings.
Things started in a hurry off Martin for the Yanks. After a long at-bat by Trent Grisham ended in a groundout, Ben Rice doubled down the right-field line, and Jasson Domínguez worked a four-pitch walk. Paul Goldschmidt, who homered off Martin back in June, would open the scoring on a single up the middle. There aren’t many right-handed pitchers that he has success off of, but he’s one of them.
Just one batter later, Jones blasted the second pitch he saw for his third major league home run, a booming shot to left-center field, displaying his pop to all fields, to make it 4-0 in the first. Two of his three career home runs are now against Martin, who had allowed four home runs and 13 total runs in his first four innings against the Yankees this season.
Schlittler looked just as good after the long wait, striking out the first two batters he faced and finishing the inning with a groundout. Martin settled down the following three innings, retiring the next eight in order before a two-out single in the fourth by Ryan McMahon, but he put his team in a big hole against Schlittler, who looked just as dominant as he has been all season, going nine up, nine down with five strikeouts to start the game.
The White Sox finally managed their first hit and baserunner with two outs in the fourth on a broken-bat blooper by Miguel Vargas, but it didn’t matter after Schlittler racked up his sixth strikeout against Colson Montgomery. Despite scoring four in the first inning against Martin, they’d be blanked for the next five. They had a great chance to score off him in the sixth as he neared the end of his rope after a Jones single, stolen base, and E-2 got him to third, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out, and McMahon hit a sharp groundout to end the inning.
Some harder contact to center field briefly gave you a scare with Schlittler, but he once again retired them in order in the sixth. Martin was lifted for Chris Murphy in the seventh and was rudely greeted by José Caballero sneaking a double down the left field line that should’ve been an out at second, if not for a great swim move and a drop by Chase Meidroth. Austin Wells got him to third with a flyout, but for the second straight inning, the Yankees couldn’t plate the runner on third with less than two out, as Grisham and Rice struck out.
There was finally a slip in Schlittler’s dominance in the seventh, as Munetaka Murakami worked a great leadoff walk before the 25-year-old beaned Miguel Vargas in the elbow to immediately put two on and nobody out. After Colson Montgomery bailed him out with a quick pop-out, former Yankee Andrew Benintendi worked a seven-pitch at-bat and pulled a double down the right field line to get the White Sox on the board and chase Schlittler from the game. He was in firm control all game, but self-inflicted wounds late doomed him.
Fernando Cruz came on to try and put out the fire, something he’s known for but has struggled with lately. Fortunately for Aaron Boone and the Yankees, he induced a shallow pop fly out of Braden Montgomery before striking out Tristan Peters to end the inning. That finished Cam’s line with 6.1 one-run innings with eight strikeouts to just one walk, another brilliant performance that lowered his ERA to 2.04 and allowed him to keep pace in the Cy Young race.
Trevor Richards, affectionately known as the Silver Fox, got the eighth for the ChiSox. Domínguez was robbed of a hit on a line drive, Goldschmidt dinked a single to right, Jones struck out, and Jazz was similarly robbed by Meidroth on a diving stop.
That Meidroth guy would continue to be pretty annoying in the bottom half. He led off the eighth with a double off Cruz, and despite inducing a pop-out right after, Boone pulled him for Paul Blackburn, who had been incredibly reliable for the past two months. Unfortunately, like Bednar last night, the runs had to come eventually. Sam Antonacci tucked a two-run homer inside the right-field foul pole and right over the fence to cut it to 4-3, before Murakami blasted a curveball to the same spot Jones hit his homer in the first. In two pitches, the lead was erased.
Grant Taylor pitched the ninth against the bottom of the order and retired them in order. The Yankees tasked Blackburn with going back out there and sending it to the 10th, and unlike his abhorrent eighth inning, he flummoxed the bottom of the White Sox order to give us free baseball.
Max Schuemann pinch-ran for Wells at second base in the 10th as the top of the order hit against Taylor, but he wouldn’t get a chance to use his speed. Grisham struck out, Rice blasted a 400-foot flyout to center field that died at the wall, and Domínguez grounded into the shift. Tim Hill was tasked with an impossible situation and sailed a wild pitch to put a runner at third with nobody out, but somehow managed to wiggle out of it. The five-man infield actually worked for two batters, plus he managed to strike out Murakami despite clearly staying away from the plate. Success!
Let’s try this again. Alí Sanchez was the Manfred man due to a weird double switch the inning prior. Goldschmidt almost snuck one through to start the inning, but Meidroth stuck with it to make a good play, albeit with Sanchez advancing. With Jones due up, Bryan Hudson entered, but Boone countered with Anthony Volpe. Falling behind 0-2, Volpe put a good swing on the ball to bring Sanchez in via a sac fly, making it 5-4. Jazz singled and stole second, but was stranded. Here we go.
With Bednar, Chivilli, and Headrick unavailable, Boone was forced to go to Camilo Doval in his highest-leverage outing in four weeks. He almost immediately threw the game away with a nubber by Vargas back to the mound, but Goldy made an unbelievable scoop. A great play by McMahon seemed to put the Yankees on the verge, but an inexplicable snap throw by Sanchez sailed into left field to allow Murakami to score. For a guy whose spot on the roster is as uncertain as anyone, it’s inexplicable. Doval walked the next two batters, as his modus operandi has been to wilt when the defense behind him messes up, but he induced a groundout of Peters to keep this game going.
Jordan Hicks got the ball in the 12th for Chicago and gave up a single to Caballero, but McMahon held at third, hoping one of his teammates could get him in with a productive out. Max Schuemann popped out, Caballero swiped second to take out the double play, and Grisham walked to load the bases for Rice. With a golden opportunity, Rice struck out, and Sanchez worked a long at-bat, but weakly chopped a ball to second to end the threat.
Ryan Yarbrough was the last guy out of the pen and put in an unenviable situation. Meidroth sacrificed the winning run to third, and Edgar Quero looped a ball into shallow center for a walk-off RBI single, ending this marathon with a loss. Another utter nightmare of a road extra-innings game.
The Yankees look for the series victory in a Thursday matinee tomorrow at 2:10 p.m. before they head a couple miles north to Wrigley. It’s Ryan Weathers against Sean Burke on YES.
