It’s never fun when a former Yankee comes back and punishes you in the Bronx, even if there wasn’t bad blood or anything that would cause a sort of “revenge game”.
Andrew Benintendi opened this series with a solo shot with a homer off Gerrit Cole on Tuesday, but started tonight’s game on the bench against the lefty Ryan Weathers. Unfortunately, he got a lane to pinch-hit with the bases loaded in the eighth and absolutely punished a ball for a go-ahead grand slam, lifting the White Sox to a 5-1 win
over the Yankees on Thursday to deny them the series sweep.
Much earlier on, Ryan Weathers got the ball to start and went right to work, striking out the top of the White Sox’s lineup in order. Chicago’s opener, Bryan Hudson, put up a sharp 1-2-3 inning of his own in the bottom half.
That strong first inning for Weathers was quickly erased on his first pitch of the second, as Colson Montgomery clobbered a sinker at the bottom of the zone for a long home run into the Yankees’ bullpen for his third home run of the series and 20th of the season to make it 1-0 White Sox.
Hudson got two quick outs in the bottom half before being chased by a bloop double to Spencer Jones. Sean Burke, the bulk reliever, struck out José Caballero to end the inning.
Weathers pitched around a two-out single in the third and would be quickly picked up by his offense, as Ryan McMahon led off the third with a booming, 430-foot opposite-field shot into the White Sox bullpen to tie the game at one. Not often you’ll see a lefty at Yankee Stadium hit more bombs to the opposite field, but that’s what we’re getting in McMahon, I guess.
Chicago went down in order in the fourth on a bunch of soft contact. With two outs and two strikes in the bottom half, Jazz Chisholm Jr. fouled a ball off his… groin. While we’re used to these just temporarily taking the wind out of players, this one actually resulted in the second baseman leaving the game. Anthony Volpe took the remainder of the at-bat and walked before being thrown out trying to steal second by Edgar Quero.
Luisangel Acuña beat out a lackadaisical effort from Caballero at second base for an infield single with one out in the fifth, but he was quickly erased on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to end the inning. Caballero atoned for his sins with a single in the bottom half, but then got picked off. Not the best inning for the fundies.
It was more of the same in the sixth for both Weathers and Burke, with the latter only giving up a one-out single to Ben Rice. Two batters into the seventh, one of them finally blinked, as Weathers was removed after walking Colson Montgomery. Fernando Cruz came on and did what he does best, getting out of the inning to preserve a 1-1 tie.
That concluded a terrific outing for Weathers after three consecutive poor ones, going 6.1 innings of efficient one-run ball. Aaron Boone elected to be rather aggressive with the hook, pulling him on just 88 pitches with a relatively rested bullpen off two blowouts, which might not be a bad idea with how Weathers has struggled third time through of late. It’s a no-decision, but a step in the right direction.
Burke stayed out there after the seventh-inning stretch and gave up a laced one-out double to Volpe, but got an assist from some overaggressive baserunning and the first major league outfield assist by Junior Perez as Volpe was gunned out at third base. Jones struck out to end the inning.
The bullpen’s recent effectiveness came to a sudden end in the eighth. Cruz allowed a leadoff double to Sam Antonacci, prompting Boone to utilize Tim Hill with two soft-hitting lefties due up. Naturally, the team’s best lefty neutralizer plunked both of them to load the bases. After he struck out Chase Meidroth, Boone inserted Camilo Doval to force Will Venable to his bench, successfully deploying the former Yankee Benintendi. The lefty promptly blasted Doval’s first pitch deep in the right-field seats.
That was a certifiable no-win scenario for Boone and the Yankees. With one out and the bases loaded, your options were Hill vs. Randal Grichuk, which is possibly the worst platoon matchup possible in this game, or hoping that Doval’s propensity to groove pitches didn’t show up. The latter was chosen, and it was immediately punished.
Doval mopped up the ninth, but on the other side, Burke chugged all the way through 7.2 very strong innings, finishing the game without needing to deploy another reliever. He was two ticks up on his fastball all night long and put together one of the best starts of his young career against a team that, while hitting a lot in the last few days, finished the day without four Opening Day starters due to injury.
The Yankees will welcome the Cincinnati Reds to town tomorrow night for just the team’s third interleague series of the year, with the opener kicking off at 7:05 pm. It’ll be Cam Schlittler up against Rhett Lowder.
