White Sox 6, Yankees 5, final in 12 innings. The Yankees put up four runs in the first inning, got 6.1 dominant innings out of Cam Schlittler, and still found a way to lose it in Chicago on Wednesday.
That's the kind of loss that stings on the way to the team plane. Rate Field, extra innings, a bullpen that blew two separate leads, and a walk-off single in the 12th that dropped the Yanks to 61-47 (still 2.5 back of the Rays in the East, but a loss is a loss).
It also snapped a two-game winning streak in this series. The Yanks took the first two in Chicago before Wednesday's collapse, so the disappointment comes with a silver lining -- more on that later.
The Early Knockout That Wasn't
It looked like a laugher for about four batters. Paul Goldschmidt (Goldy) opened the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the first, and the Yanks were off -- for one inning, anyway.
Spencer Jones Sets the Tone
One batter later, Spencer Jones turned around a Davis Martin pitch and put it in the left-center bleachers for a three-run shot. 4-0, Yankees, before Rate Field's crowd of 31,694 had settled into their seats.
Jones finished the night 2-for-4 with the homer, three RBI, a run scored, and a stolen base for good measure. Best WPA of any Yankee on the field, and it wasn't close.
That's the kind of game Jones is capable of stealing outright. On this night, it wasn't enough.
Schlittler Was the Story, Until He Wasn't
Cam Schlittler was filthy. 6.1 innings, 8 strikeouts, just two hits and one earned run allowed, 93 pitches. The kind of start that should hold up a 4-0 lead by itself.
He left with a one-run cushion (Andrew Benintendi's double had cut it to 4-1 in the seventh) and every reason to expect a win. Instead, Fernando Cruz opened the eighth by letting Chase Meidroth double, and Paul Blackburn came in to relieve him and turned it into a track meet -- Sam Antonacci's two-run shot scored Meidroth (Cruz's runner) and made it 4-3, and one batter later Munetaka Murakami tied it with a solo shot of his own. Two homers, five outs for Blackburn, game tied at 4.
The Inning That Flipped It
That back-to-back sequence off Blackburn (1.2 IP, 2 ER, both on homers) was the biggest single swing of the night. Schlittler's whole cushion got erased in about seven minutes of real time.
The Yankees clawed the lead back in the 11th on an Anthony Volpe (The Captain) sacrifice fly, 5-4. Didn't hold that one either -- a throwing error by catcher Ali Sánchez on a pickoff attempt at third let the tying run score two batters later, unearned but no less costly.
Camilo Doval actually pitched well around it. He got two big outs to strand a runner at third before the error happened, then walked two more batters before escaping on a Tristan Peters groundout to end the frame. Blown save next to his name in the box score, sure, but the free passes did more damage than the stuff did. Feel free to blame the glove work instead.
Boone's Bullpen Math
Ryan Yarbrough came in to face the bottom of a lineup that had already seen every other arm in the pen, and Chase Meidroth's sacrifice bunt in the 12th set up Edgar Quero's game-ending single the very next at-bat. Yarbrough (now 2-1) took the loss on two batters faced.
Jordan Hicks got the win for Chicago with a scoreless top of the 12th -- and it wasn't easy. He loaded the bases (Ryan McMahon, José Caballero, and Trent Grisham) before getting Ali Sánchez to ground out and strand all three, the last real chance the Yankees had to finish it before the White Sox got to walk it off.
Yankees still take the series if they win Thursday's finale -- they're up 2-1 after taking the first two in Chicago. One bad eighth inning doesn't erase that.
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.
