Behind an incredible 7 1/3-inning outing from Sean Burke and a grand slam Benny bomb, the White Sox (39-34) evaded the sweep in the Bronx, defeating the Yankees (45-28), 5-1. Both pitchers put on an excellent performance as each allowed a solo home run and struck out eight, but Burke outlasted Ryan Weathers with the help of Bryan Hudson, and the South Siders remain in first place.
The White Sox offense initially got off to a cold start (again), as Ryan Weathers struck out the side, bringing a sort
of “here we go again” type of vibe to the night. Thankfully, Colson Montgomery kept his hot streak rolling to lead off the second inning, blasting his third home run of the series for the South Siders to take an early lead, 1-0. That was the 20th homer of the season for Colson, folks, and it’s only June.
Lefthander Bryan Hudson was the opener for the Good Guys ahead of Sean Burke, and he was rock solid in the first. Hudson rang up two of the three batters he faced, including Ben Rice to lead off the game and Cody Bellinger to close out the inning. The lefty returned for the second and quickly snagged two outs before giving up a double to Spencer Jones — his only hit allowed on the day. On a shorter leash as the opener, Will Venable turned to the bullpen for Burke to begin his outing, starting off on a high note by striking out José Caballero to end the inning.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last long, as Ryan McMahon took Burke deep to tie the game at one in the bottom of the third. With the tough segment of the New York lineup coming up to bat, Burke was able to buckle down and retire the next three batters in order, working through both Rice and Paul Goldschmidt to squash the momentum. Outside of the homer, Burke cruised through the rest of the game, continuously shutting the Yankees down anytime someone reached base, even picking off Caballero at second base in the sixth.
Back in the fourth, Burke had Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a 2-2 count, but he had to exit the game mid-at-bat after fouling a ball off a very sensitive area. Jazz wasn’t able to recover, so Anthony Volpe stepped in to take his place, and actually worked the 2-2 count to a walk to get on base. Volpe was subsequently thrown out at second base after attempting to steal, and despite a high throw from Quero, Luisangel Acuña placed a nice tag, jumping to catch the ball and get the tag down in one motion. The kicker is that the White Sox essentially did the exact same thing the next inning, as Acuña reached base but was caught stealing to end the inning on Junior Perez’s strikeout, which was overturned to an out after originally being called safe. It was quite a close play, so it was a little surprising that it was changed to an out, but it was fair enough. And with that, the game remained tied at one.
The Yankees’ bats were also relatively quiet until Volpe mashed a deep drive to left in the bottom of the seventh, but he made an interesting decision to stretch the double into a three-bagger, allowing Perez to throw him out at third and prevent the scoring threat. It was a great throw by the rookie for his first MLB putout, beating Volpe by a few steps after the ball first went over his head and off the wall. Burke remained in control for the final out and rang up Spencer Jones for his sixth K of the night. Through seven, the Yanks still had only mustered five hits and didn’t have many opportunities to score, having left only two on base to that point.
Weathers was also dominant for New York outside of the Colson home run, only allowing three hits against the South Siders while striking out eight in his 6 1/3 frames. Fernando Cruz was solid for the few batters he faced in relief of Weathers, but the eighth inning turned into a bit of a mess for New York. As Venable started subbing in some batters, Aaron Boone was also playing the matchup game, needing three arms to get through the inning.
Pinch-hitting for Luisangel Acuña, Sam Antonacci got a rally going for the Good Guys with a leadoff double, finally giving some life to the bats after several dead innings. Venable decided to pinch-hit Jacob Gonzalez for Perez, but Boone countered the White Sox’s move to put a lefty bat up at the plate by turning to our old pal, lefthander Tim Hill, out of the bullpen. Hill instantly made things worse for the Yankees by hitting both Gonzalez and Tristan Peters back-to-back to load the bases up for Meidroth, who sadly ended up striking out. Since we were already having a pinch-hit party, Andrew Benintendi came in for Randal Grichuk as the Yanks swapped in the third pitcher of the inning. On the very first pitch from Camilo Doval, Benintendi smashed a grand slam. A Bronx Benny bomb for the ages: a no-doubter to give the White Sox a four-run lead, 5-1.
Now with a bit of a cushion, Burke returned for the eighth and was the most efficient he had been all night. Using just eight pitches, Sean struck out Caballero for his seventh of the night and got two more quick outs, allowing him to go for the win and close out the game. Burke was nothing short of phenomenal tonight against the Bronx Bombers, limiting them to five hits and a walk while striking out eight and earning his fourth win of the season. While facing a series sweep, Burke kept the Sox in the game and gave the offense a chance to win, doing exactly what was needed to stave off the sweep. Sean was calm, cool, and collected throughout his entire outing, and he reduced his ERA from 4.15 to 3.89.
This was a much-needed W to close out the series and head to Detroit with some positive momentum. It also helped keep the Sox in first place, as the Guardians avoided a sweep in Milwaukee. The Sox are 3-0 against the Tigers so far this season, and if they can come back from the road trip with three or four wins, that would be a huge redemption after the first two games of this series.
