Chicago White Sox 4 — New York Yankees 6
With visible joy on Eduardo Nunez standing on second, the Yankees completed a comeback 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox.
The battle of aces, featuring White Sox lanky lefty Chris Sale against the calm Hiroki Kuroda. With one out, Gordon Beckham got into scoring position with a double. A bobble of an infield single would put two on for Adam Dunn. The slugging hitter would plate one run but Kuroda settled down. He would get two strikeouts to end the inning and kept the damage to just one.
In the second inning, the White Sox defense didn’t play defense.
Vernon Wells would hit a single that second baseman Gordon Beckham couldn’t get a hold of so it deflected into shallow left center field. When Beckham went to recover the ball, he boots it and kicks it away, allowing Wells to get to second on the error. Then with two outs, Eduardo Nunez would hit a ground ball to third baseman Conor Gillaspie, who would be unable to come up with a throw, for the second error of the inning.
Still with two outs and runners on the corners, the Yankees would execute the double steal. Eduardo Nunez, on first, would make a break for second and after stopping between the bases, Vernon Wells on third, would break for home. The throw would be too high and Wells would successfully steal home. The delayed steal put the Yankees on the board, tying the game at one.
The last time the Yankees stole home was Mark Teixeira on May 31, 2011 at Oakland.
Hiroki Kuroda would get seven consecutive outs before a leadoff single in the fifth inning. Alejandro De Aza would reach on a single and when he stole second, Robinson Cano may have had a tag but could not come up with the throw from Chris Stewart. This slip by Cano and Stewart would prove costly when Alexei Ramirez got a two-run triple. Eduardo Nunez would, shockingly, start an outstanding heads-up play when the Yankees shortstop snagged a line drive and turned a double play on Alexei Ramirez, caught off of third.
De Aza would get to Kuroda one more time in the seventh inning when he went deep to right field. The home run put the White Sox ahead by four and knocked the recently struggling Kuroda out of the game.
In 6.1 innings, Hiroki Kuroda allowed four runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out seven.
In the eighth inning, Chris Sale would get one out but the Yankees got the offense going with a simple single by Derek Jeter. Robinson Cano would hit a deep double into left field to put two in scoring position. Cano’s double ended Chris Sale’s night. He would be relieved by hard-throwing Nate Jones. Alfonso Soriano would hit a two-run single into right center field and the Yankees were within one. The Yankees would execute the hit-and-run successfully when Alex Rodriguez hit a single to left field and Soriano would advance to third.
Curtis Granderson would pinch hit for Vernon Wells and White Sox manager Robin Ventura matched lefties with Donnie Veal. Granderson would tie the game with a line drive to right center field. Mark Reynolds would strike out for the second out of the game. With two outs, Ventura would turn to another hard-throwing reliever, righty Matt Lindstrom. Eduardo Nunez would be huge in the spot and hit a double to left field. Two runs would score and once Nunez was safely on second, he raised his arms with excitement as the comeback was nearly complete.
Mariano Rivera would come in for the ninth inning with a two-run lead. The Yankees closer would get the first out on a called third strike, painting the corner with a cutter. The next out came on a ground out and Rivera would get another called third strike for out three. The comeback was complete.
Mariano Rivera tied Trevor Hoffman‘s MLB record of nine seasons with at least 40 saves.
Win – Boone Logan (5-2)
Loss – Nate Jones (4-5)
Save – Mariano Rivera (40)
Notables
White Sox
*Alejandro De Aza – 3 for 4, 2 R, Solo Home Run (15) in the 7th, RBI (56)
*Alexei Ramirez – 1 for 4, 3B, 2 RBI (43)
Yankees
*Eduardo Nunez – 2 for 4, 2B, 2 RBI (22)
*Alfonso Soriano – 1 for 4, R, 2 RBI (90)
Current Yankees Record: 74-64
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