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Series Recap
·5 min read

Series Recap: Yankees secure South Side split

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The New York Yankees finished strong in their four-game series and secured a split with the Chicago White Sox. One could argue they let the first game slip away but given the pitching circumstances, the Yankees rebounded nicely in the latter half of the series to get back on track.

GAME 1

Much like their last road trip, the Yankees offense jumped out early, only to be wasted by abysmal starting pitching. A 4-0 lead quickly evaporated into a 5-4 defeat.

YANKEES BOSS A NOVA

Facing old friend Ivan Nova, the Yankees pounced fairly early. During the second stanza, Didi Gregorius and Gleyber Torres connected on consecutive singles. A Brett Gardner force out made it runners at the corners. The ensuing wild pitch enabled Gregorius to score. Clint Frazier followed with an RBI-single to left.

In the fourth, Torres kept the inning alive with a two-out single to left. Gardner followed by bashing a tw0-run tater to right for his second home run in as many games.

HOW’D THAT HAPPEN?

Staked to a 4-0 advantage, J.A. Happ came apart in the fifth.

A leadoff free pass to Yolmer Sanchez was followed by a single to right by Ryan Cordell. Leury Garcia doubled home the first White Sox run. The big blast came via Tim Anderson‘s three-run blast to center for the equalizer.

Five innings, five hits, four runs, four walks, unacceptable.

OH NO OTTO

Garcia was back for more in the seventh inning, this time against Adam Ottavino. Winning the battle of attrition, Garcia slugged the tenth pitch of his at-bat to right-center, giving the White Sox their first lead at 5-4.

LINEUP GOES TOPLESS

Adding to a brutal evening, the top four hitters in the New York order went a combined 0-for-16 with eight K’s and only one walk.

GAME 2

The further downward spiral continued. New York actually sported a 1-0 lead early but ended up being stomped out 10-2.

DEEP DISH FOR LUKE

I believe everyone would be OK seeing Luke Voit participate in the home run derby. Voit, who often mimics the Sammy Sosa hop, hopped to it on the South Side of Chicago. During the first frame, Voit staked the Bronx Bombers to a 1-0 edge with a solo bomb to center off Lucas Giolito.

YOU SERIOUS CLARK?

After that, there wasn’t much offense to speak of and the Yankee pitching was lit up like Clark Griswold’s roof.

CC Sabathia looked spent, miraculously pitching into the fifth. The big blow was a three-run homer surrendered to Eloy Jimenez in the first, as part of a four-run inning.

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An error by Urshela on a ball hit by Anderson was followed up by an RBI-double by Jose Abreu, making it 5-1 in the second stanza.

Luis Cessa proceeded to get smoked in his forgettable frame, yielding four runs in the sixth, capped off by another three-run homer to Jimenez, making it 10-1.

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GAME 3

No starting pitching, no problem for the Yankees. A one-two punch of Chad Green and Nestor Cortes Jr. made for a winning formula. The New York offense also powdered the ball in an 8-4 victory. During the game, the club also acquired Edwin Encarnacion from the Seattle Mariners.

ONE-TWO PUNCH

Across seven-plus frames, the Yankees spared with the duo of Green and Cortes Jr. It was almost like a boxing combo of a powerful right and a big left hook.

Green pumped his fastball and slider, recording all six of his outs via the strikeout.

Cortes Jr. featured a nice mix of stuff, going fastball, curveball, slider, fanning seven in five-plus innings. Aside from Jonathan Holder allowing two of his inherited runners to score in a four-run eighth, which featured an RBI-single by Jose Abreu and a three-run homer by James McCann, Cortes Jr. was more than solid enough to earn his first career victory.

FOUR-RUN FOURTH

Facing Reynaldo Lopez in the fourth, the Yankee lineup went to work.

Voit and Hicks reached on consecutive singles. Sanchez plated the first run with a two-run double to left.

With one down, Torres rocked a 2-0 changeup to center for a two-run tater.

Torres would plate Sanchez on a sac fly to right in the sixth.

HERE’S MY NUMBER, SO CALL ME MAYBIN

If this was potentially his last stand, Cameron Maybin wasn’t going down without a fight. During the seventh, Maybin clocked a solo homer to center off Juan Minaya.

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New York would add a seventh run on a Sanchez ground out.

A bases-loaded walk by Gregorius against old friend Manny Banuelos in the ninth would cap off the scoring at 8-4.

GAME 4

The Yankees put it all together and handled the White Sox 10-3.

PAX BOUNCES BACK

It wasn’t a dominant outing but a representative outing by James Paxton. Aside from an Abreu home run in the first, Paxton picked up steam as he rolled along. For a Yankee starter of late, it was more than enough. Paxton fanned seven, scattered eight hits, walked one and yielded two runs in six innings.

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NO RETREAT, BABY, NO SURRENDER

The Yankees rolled out the B-Street Bombers for perhaps the last time. After the game, Frazier would be the first casualty of the new roster additions.

Facing Odrisamer Despaigne in the third inning Maybin reached on a single but was erased on a botched hit-and-run. LeMahieu followed with a one-out single. Voit and Torres collected consecutive free passes. With two down, Gardner delivered a two-run single up the box. Urshela single to right and plated Torres. After a Mike Tauchman walk, Austin Romine went up the middle for a two-run single.

In the fifth, Gardner was hit by a pitch and moved to third on an Urshela double to center. With one down, Romine lined a two-run double to right.

An RBI groundout by Gardner would plate another run in the sixth against Jose Ruiz.

Maybin smoked a solo homer to center off Bummer in the seventh.

Another RBI-single by Gardner off Thyago Vieira capped off the scoring in the eighth.

Both Romine and Gardner collected four-RBI days, not too shabby.

ON DECK

At 43-27, the Yankees return home to take on the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium for a three-game series Monday evening.

Pitching probables, Yonny Chirinos vs. Masahiro Tanaka, TBD vs. J.A. Happ, Blake Snell vs. CC Sabathia.