Yankees 9, White Sox 5, and it took most of nine innings for that scoreline to make any sense.
Chicago jumped Max Fried for three runs in the bottom of the first before the Yankees had even come up for a second at-bat -- an RBI single, a sac fly, a triple, and suddenly Rate Field was loud and the Yankees looked like they'd shown up to the wrong game. They didn't stay there. New York clawed back to tie it in the fourth, blew a lead in the fifth, took it back for good in the seventh, and then buried it in the eighth on the strength of a three-run homer from a guy hitting his first one in the big leagues. Final: 9-5, Yankees, and the series opener in Chicago belongs to New York.
The Turning Point
Forget the final score for a second -- this game turned in the top of the seventh, tied at four.
Ben Rice lined a single to right off Bryan Hudson to score Amed Rosario and put the Yankees back in front, 5-4. By win probability, it was the single biggest swing of the night, a 17.8-point jump toward New York. Everything after that -- the eighth-inning explosion, the ninth-inning error that made it look closer than it was -- happened because Rice put the Yankees back on top first.
Hudson took the loss. Rice picked up his team-leading RBI total for the season and made it look easy, which it wasn't.
Star of the Game: Jazz
Jazz Chisholm Jr. did just about everything except throw a pitch. Two hits, two RBI, two runs, two stolen bases -- and by WPA, the most valuable player on the field by a wide margin.
His two-out, two-run double in the top of the fourth tied the game at three and was the moment the Yankees stopped playing from behind. Then, because apparently that wasn't enough, he stole third with two outs (a genuinely reckless, genuinely great baseball decision) and scored the go-ahead run on a Spencer Jones groundout. He capped the night with an infield single in the eighth that set the table for the big blow.
Jazz doesn't play quiet games. This wasn't one.
The Big Blow
With two outs in the top of the eighth and the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead, Ali Sanchez hit a 3-2 fastball from Sean Newcomb 371 feet into the left field seats for his first career home run. Three runs scored. The lead went from one to five, and the game went from tense to comfortable in a single swing.
Sanchez has bounced around -- six organizations, five seasons -- before this one finally left the yard. (Some guys wait a long time for that first one. He picked a good night for it.)
Fried's Rough Start, and a Bullpen That Held
Fried wasn't sharp. Three earned runs in three innings, four strikeouts, two walks, and an early hook that could've buried the Yankees if the offense hadn't answered. Give Aaron Boone credit for not overreacting to the first inning -- he let his lineup work instead of panicking, and it paid off.
The bullpen did its part too, mostly. Angel Chivilli and Fernando Cruz combined for stretches of scoreless relief, and Brent Headrick picked up the win with 1.1 clean innings. Tim Hill blew his fourth save of the season in the fifth, letting Chicago tie it right back up at four (nobody's perfect, and Hill's had a rough year of it). David Bednar closed it out for his 21st save, and a ninth-inning fielding error by Anthony Volpe made the final score a little uglier than the game actually was.
The Yankees are 60-46 now, winners of six of their last eight, and sitting 2.5 games back of Tampa Bay in the East. Three more against the White Sox this week. Keep hitting like this and the gap gets a lot smaller in a hurry.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
