The Yankees have now won 16 of their last 18 games after taking down the Chicago White Sox, 15-7, on Thursday night.
Here are the takeaways…
– With the game tied at seven, the Yankees had the bases empty with two outs in the top of the eighth. But Joe Kelly walked three-straight batters to load the bases for Aaron Judge. He hit a weak grounder to short, but beat the throw to first – all while Gleyber Torres never stopped running from second, and beat the throw home to make it a two-run base hit. After Kelly walked Rizzo, Tony La Russa then decided to bring in Tanner Banks, a lefty, to face Giancarlo Stanton, who already had two homers and four RBI on the night. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work. On an 0-2 count, Stanton drove in his fifth and sixth runs of the night, and gave New York a four-run lead. The next batter, Josh Donaldson, continued to pour it on with a three-run home run. It was a seven-run eighth inning by the Bombers to put the game away.
– The Yankees were quick to get things going, once again with the long ball, as Stanton pulled out the two-iron for his first two-run homer of the night in the first inning that gave the Yanks an early 2-0 lead.
– Luis Gil got the spot start, making his 2022 debut despite a rough go in the minor leagues. He got off to a hot start, striking out two in a perfect first inning. But the second inning was ugly. He put the first two batters of the inning on base, and A.J. Pollock drove in a run with a double. Two batters later, Leury Garcia dunked in a bloop single that drove in two and gave the White Sox the lead. He kept the Sox scoreless in the third, but loaded the bases with one out in the fourth. He got Garcia to ground into a fielder’s choice at the plate, but threw a really wild pitch to bring in a run. He got Tim Anderson to chase to again stop more bleeding, and his day was done after four frames. While allowing four earned, he struck out five and walked two while allowing five hits.
– In the third, Rizzo laced an RBI triple – benefit of a funky hop in the corner – down the right field line to tie the game at three. The next batter, Stanton, again went deep to the opposite field to give the Yanks a 5-3 lead. In the top of the fourth, after a two-out single from Kyle Higashioka, LeMahieu hit a double down the left field line, and Higashioka scored all the way from first to make it a 6-3 game.
– If the Yankees weren’t making contact against Dylan Cease, they were striking out – 11 of the 12 outs made by Cease were via the strikeout. However, when the Yanks put the ball in play off him, they were 6-for-7. The hard contact didn’t stop when Cease left the game though –Judge hit a 456-foot home run to lead off the seventh give the Bombers a 7-4 lead.
– Miguel Castro and Lucas Luetge each tossed a scoreless inning of relief, but in the seventh, Luetge allowed a leadoff single to Garcia, forcing Aaron Boone to go with Jonathan Loaisiga. He walked Anderson, and then Yoan Moncada drilled a game-tying, three-run home run. Loaisiga’s ERA is now up to 5.93 (10 earned runs/13.2 innings) as he has allowed runs in five of his 14 appearances, and each of his last two. Thankfully, because of the seven-run eighth, and Judge’s tack-on sac fly in the ninth, Chad Green would’ve had to try pretty hard to blow the game, but for good measure, he tossed two scoreless innings for the win.
– With his three-hit, two-homer, six-RBI game on Thursday, Stanton is slashing .358/.410/.755 with seven homers and 20 RBI in his last 14 games. Judge finished the night 2-for-4 with four RBI. In his last 15 games, he’s hitting .328 with eight homers, 21 RBI, and an 1.133 OPS. Since April 24, Judge and Stanton are a combined 39-for-114 (.342) with 15 homers, 41 RBI, a .754 slugging percentage, and a 1.148 OPS.
– With his 0-for-5 night, Aaron Hicks is now 2 for his last 30, and 0 for his last 19.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees will look for at least a split on Friday night with Gerrit Cole on the bump. Vince Velazquez will throw the first pitch at 8:10 p.m.