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Series Recap
·6 min read

Series Recap: Yankees knock Chicago’s Sox off

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Playing power ball, the New York Yankees used Yankee Stadium to their full home field advantage against the Chicago White Sox. If we’re being real, some of the moon shots hit in this series would have left Yellowstone. When all was said and done the Bronx Bombers took their rightful place atop the AL home run chart with 22.

Going for their eighth straight victory in Game 1, the Yankees played host to the aforementioned White Sox in the final leg of their homestand.

POWER ALLEY

If you’re a gym rat like me, your weight training goals probably look something like Matt Holliday. After experiencing a bout with lower back stiffness, Holliday was back to crushing the baseball. With Pete Kozma and Aaron Hicks on base, during the third inning, Holliday blasted his second home run of the season and first in the home pinstripes, to deep left, off Derek Holland.

Chase Headley, who entered the game leading all AL players in WAR, hammered an RBI-double to left, reaching third on a questionable error call on Melky Cabrera.
Aaron Judge beat out a ball hit to short, which plated Headley and staked the Yankees to a 5-0 advantage.

Moving to the fifth frame, Judge launched a two-run bomb for his fifth fourth round-tripper of the season and the Bronx Bombers were ahead 7-0.

LINEUP IS ALL RIGHT

Going by his binder, manager Joe Girardi decided to sit down Greg Bird against the lefty Holland. Holland isn’t Carl Hubbel, Sandy Koufax, Warren Spahn or Whitey Ford. Heck, Jacoby Ellsbury, also left handed, collected a pair of hits. Perhaps Girardi thought he didn’t want to send Bird back into a funk against a lefty. However, coming off a breakout game where he goes 3-for-3 with a home run, one has to wonder why he wouldn’t keep him out there and let him settle into a groove. It’s not like Chris Carter is setting the world on fire.

GUMBY BENDS BUT DOES NOT BREAK

He’s here and he will be sure to stay. Gumby! If Jordan Montgomery keeps pitching like this, he will stick in pinstripes. Montgomery’s second start resulted in his first major-league victory. For the line, the rookie southpaw threw six innings, scattering seven hits, fanning four and allowing three runs. Montgomery’s only blemish was a three-run homer yielded to Yolmer Sanchez in the seventh.

After Adam Warren was touched up for the first time this season, on a Kevan Smith RBI-double in the ninth, Aroldis Chapman entered to record the final two outs and his fourth save on the campaign.
It wasn’t even as close as the 7-4 final would indicate.

Attempting to push their winning streak to nine straight in Game 2, the Yankees probably wished they could have saved some runs from the night before. A duel between Miguel Gonzalez and Luis Severino resulted in a 4-1 Yankee loss, their first at home this season.

SEVERINO DOWNING THEM

Aside from a pair of mistakes and his defense failing him, Severino was solid. Retiring the first eight White Sox batters faced, Severino became the youngest Yankees pitcher since Al Downing to record consecutive games of 10 strikeouts or more. He also became the youngest Yankee starter to record 10 K’s without issuing a walk. Severino fanned 10 and only gave up three hits through eight frames but they were equal parts timely and costly.

WHO AM I?

I used to play shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m known for my defense and not my hitting, but botched a tailor-made double-play ball in the seventh inning. No, not Brendan Ryan. Pete Kozma is your correct answer. On a ball hit by Melky Cabrera, Kozma’s muff gave Chicago first and second with zero outs, rather than two outs and nobody on. While one can’t assume a double play, the error was costly.
Where Leury Garcia went yard in the third, Avisail Garcia drilled a three-run shot off Severino in the seventh.
I’ll give you Joe Girardi knows his players and their health/rest status better than any of us, but one has to wonder why Chase Headley and his red-hot bat and solid defense wasn’t starting at third base, and why Torreyes wasn’t at shortstop instead of Kozma. It’s only mid-April, guys don’t need rest, they’re fresh.

GONZO THE GREAT

Miguel Gonzalez was economical and stymied the Yankee bats. Gonzalez was perfect until the fifth when Starlin Castro reached on a swinging bunt. Only two Yankees (Holliday and Judge) made contact with an exit velocity eclipsing 100 miles per hour and both of those ended in a double play. Gonzalez fanned four and yielded only four hits and one run across 8.1 innings.
A bases loaded walk by Castro accounted for the Yankee scoring in the ninth.

BOUNCE BACK

Last night took an L, but tonight I bounce back. Game 3 saw the Yankees follow the sage words of Big Sean and they bounced the White Sox back to Chi-Town with a 9-1 victory. New York pounded out a season-high four home runs and finished off the homestand with an 8-1 ledger.

1010 WINS

At 10-5, your Bronx Bombers became the first team in the AL to record 10 victories. The Yankees didn’t register their tenth win until May 6 last year.

BOMBEROO… IT… IS… GONE!

Chase Headley returned refreshed at third base. Hitting .396 with a 1.146 OPS, Headley smashed a two-run home run to center off Dylan Covey in the first. The drive was Headley’s third of the season.

Fast forward to the fifth where Starlin Castro’s third home run, a three-run jolt to center, was only the appetizer.

ALL RISE!

Before one could even digest the Castro blast, Aaron Judge smashed a solo bomb, which still hasn’t landed. Judge’s swat to left was such a no-doubter, Covey didn’t even bother turning around. Judge’s sixth fifth home run of the campaign gave the Yankees an 8-1 advantage. At age 24 or younger in a single season, only Mickey Mantle and Bobby Murcer (both seven apiece) have more home runs through their first 15 games.

During the eighth, pinch-hitting appearance, Aaron Hicks ripped a wall scraping screamer for his fourth of the season, making it 9-1 for good measure.

TANAKA TIME

Lost in the shuffle was a representative start by Masahiro Tanaka. Aside from a Jose Abreu RBI-double in the fourth, Tanaka was solid. In seven frames, he tossed six K’s and scattered six hits.

ON DECK

At 10-5 on the campaign, the Yankees travel to Pittsburgh and take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-game series starting Friday evening. Coming off a 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Buccos are 6-9.

Pitching probables include CC Sabathia vs. Tyler Glasnow, Michael Pineda vs. Jameson Taillon, Jordan Montgomery vs. Ivan Nova.