Yankees 5, White Sox 4: No margin for errors

Liam Hendriks finally pitched the ninth inning of a tie game on the road for the White Sox.

I thought I was more specific in my request that he start that inning, instead of inheriting the bases loaded with one out and Aaron Judge at the plate. I’ll have to review my paperwork.

Anyway, Hendriks walked Judge on five pitches, even though Judge spotted him a strike by going around on a head-high pitch to start the at-bat. The Yankees sealed a sweep with a shrimp, and the White Sox will return from a 2-4 road trip tending to some wounded pride.

If they want to spin it positively, they can blame themselves for this loss. Three of the Yankees’ five runs crossed the plate courtesy of White Sox errors, and another one resulted in part to managerial stubbornness. The White Sox offense was shut down by another ordinary righty (Jameson Taillon) through five innings, but rediscovered the home run swing to cut down margins of 3-0 and 4-2.

The bottom of the ninth overshadowed the top of the ninth, which once again featured Andrew Vaughn vs. Aroldis Chapman, but this time with a startlingly opposite result. Two days after grounding into a triple play to bail Chapman out of a burgeoning rally, Vaughn entered as a pinch hitter for Adam Eaton with one out and blasted an opposite-field solo shot well out to right center to tie the game.

The White Sox sustained pressure afterward, with Yasmani Grandal walking and a pinch-running Danny Mendick advancing on a wild pitch. Alas, Leury García grounded out, and Nick Madrigal looked at two knee-high fastballs over the plate before being called for an unchecked swing on a sinker in the dirt, and so it went to the ninth.

For the second time in three days, Tony La Russa stuck with the guy who had pitched a scoreless eighth, even though Aaron Bummer had to survive Gleyber Torres’ thwarted steal attempt of third, which erased a leadoff single and run-scoring opportunity. It ended up working just as poorly as Evan Marshall on Friday, although this one took a little longer.

Clint Frazier led off with a single through the middle, then stole second on Brett Gardner’s strikeout. La Russa then came out to the mount, but only to discuss intentionally walking DJ LeMahieu, which they did with first base open. The idea was to keep Bummer to face lefty Tyler Wade, but Wade foiled the plot with a chopper that was as effective as a drag bunt, reaching first base before Madrigal could complete a flip.

That’s when La Russa called for Hendriks, who hadn’t pitched since Wednesday, and only faced a total of seven batters since May 14. He didn’t throw a competitive pitch, and the walk ended the game.

Two other mistakes dug other holes. In the first, Dallas Keuchel booted the second of a pair of soft comebackers to start the game, which extended the inning long enough to set up a two-run single by Torres. Both runs were unearned, but Keuchel trailed 2-0 nevertheless.

In the sixth, José Ruiz was tasked with keeping the deficit at one and the endeavor got off to a shaky start with a leadoff walk, lineout and a single through the left side. Ruiz then won a battle with Brett Gardner by getting a chopper to the first base side of the mound. Ruiz handled it, and made a prompt flip to second. Tim Anderson crossed the bag and made a quick fling to first in hopes of getting the still-somewhat-speedy Gardner. The throw was high and wide, José Abreu tried holding the bag when even a catchable ball might not have completed the double play, and the ball glanced off his mitt and into the dugout for a run-scoring effort.

That said, the White Sox were able to dig deep in other innings, and almost offset the mistakes.

In the fifth, Marshall inherited his own bases-loaded situation from Keuchel, who counted on a more generous strike zone from Jim Reynolds than he received. He faced three batters and retired none of them, allowing a single and two walks.

Marshall couldn’t strand all of them, but he recorded two outs while facing only three batters, getting Gio Urshela to ground into a 5-4-3 double play before rallying from a 2-0 count to freeze Torres with full-count changeup. New York’s lead grew from 2-0 to 3-0, but it could’ve been so much worse.

Once Taillon departed the game after allowing just five baserunners over five scoreless innings, the White Sox offense could finally get to work. In the latest example of his stellar plate discipline, Yoán Moncada worked a one-out walk from Wandy Peralta on eight pitches, and Abreu followed with a 450-rocket out to left center to make it a 3-2 game.

Chad Green ended up finishing that inning, but Grandal foiled his attempt to start the seventh, hoisting a full-count, eighth-pitch fastball into the first row of Yankee Stadium’s short porch to make it a 4-3 game. Vaughn then added the Sox’s third homer in the ninth, setting up a better story that couldn’t quite be finished.

Bullet points:

*Yermín Mercedes ducked into a Taillon curve and took it off the helmet, but remained in the game after the scare.

*Codi Heuer threw the kind of inning we’d like to see from him, pitching a 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts on 11 pitches.

*Grandal now has a baserunner kill to his name by cutting down Torres, who was initially ruled safe. The call was overturned after a review by one of Yankee Stadium’s great close-up camera angles.

*The White Sox have lost three games in a row for the first time all year.

Record: 26-19 | Box score | Statcast

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huisj

I’d love to have time to look up Sox reliever stats when coming out for another inning of work. Seems like it always goes about as bad as possible and just leaves a mess for the next guy.

Root Cause

I don’t know that it is fair to blame HOF for anything this week.

A detective would consider him a prime suspect as he meets the criteria. He had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to derail the entire team. Of course, the Yankees are on that shortlist too.

I do know that I haven’t seen anyone smiling or having fun since the “Man with the Iron Fist” made his first appearance last week.

Trooper Galactus

I wasn’t really super upset about leaving Bummer in to start the inning, though I didn’t realize how long it had been since Hendriks had pitched. Regardless, I thought keeping him in after getting Gardner out was not the right play.

As Cirensica

Bullpen management hasn’t been TLR strength. Not even close, and if he’s gonna use Hendriks on save situations only, we are fucked. Hendriks who once said he wanted to pitch 81 innings might end up pitching 50 innings. What a waste of money

metasox

I have a feeling we will see a bit more Hendriks. Whether the situations make sense or not, he likes to pitch and needs work, plus the other guys aren’t exactly making the case for time. I dont think it is in La Russa’s nature to just put in the closer more to make his job easier, but it would in a way – if he fails, just say ‘I put in my closer, what more do you want?’

Last edited 2 years ago by metasox
jhomeslice

Yankees in a different class than their hapless AL Central foes that they so easily beat up on. They are great against bad teams but are 6-9 or something vs teams over .500, just like last year. But to be fair, no team can be expected to win with their 3 best outfielders sidelined for significant parts of the season at the same time. Their replacements are pitiful (Vaughn excluded from that), but the same could be said for any team dealing with their top 3 outfielders on the DL. You can’t plan for something like that. It’s somewhat of a miracle that they have done as well as they have. They still have to prove they can beat good teams, which goes back to last year as well. They are going to need Eloy and Robert back and playing decent before the clock runs out for this season to go anywhere after game 162. They don’t have much of a chance of winning a series against the Yankees in October with the lineups they had this weekend.

Engel coming back should help, it’s a start at least. His injury sounded way more serious than I had read (muscle almost torn off the tendon or something, yikes), hope he can play at 100 percent pretty soon without being a risk to go on the DL again.

Last edited 2 years ago by jhomeslice
itaita

I dont think the series was as bad as people made it sound. It was close enough that mistakes were the difference. And while that obviously still counts the only game that was a no chance was vs the best pitcher in the league. I feel like if they played this series 10 times the Sox win 2 of 3 a few times and at least one for most of them. Just felt like a series where the bounces did not go their way so the errors and whatnot were more glaring.

Maybe im also just tired of being dour for a team over .500 and want to have fun watching baseball.

polishwith

Liam Hendricks has been hot garbage. Who would have thought the Twins might have got the better deal by signing Colome. I don’t care if he hadn’t pitched in a couple days. He’s your “big C” closer. The situation shouldn’t have to be “perfect” for him to succeed. Getting two outs was gonna be tough, but at least make them earn it. Inexcusable to walk someone in.

mrridgman

You may not have noticed that Colome pitched poorly enough that he is no longer the closer.

polishwith

I noticed. You might see the same happen with Hendricks. Kopech would be a better closer.

As Cirensica

Hendriks hasn’t been sharp but he hasn’t been used properly. It seems Hendriks is at his best when used often which it hasn’t happened as much this year

polishwith

15 hits and 2 bb in 18 innings is not good, and definitely not worth the money.

ForsterFTOG

A whip of less than one is bad?

polishwith

No, but the Sox have been kicking around the Twins and the Royals.

ndsoxfan

I’ll just move these goalposts over here….

As Cirensica

LOL
Whataboutism applies to baseball too

soxygen

If LaRussa said that Bummer came in for the 9th because of matchups then color me skeptical. He was facing Frazier, #8 hitter and a righty; Gardner is a lefty, but he is also the #9 hitter, and LaMahieu, a righty. Seems like you wouldn’t bring Bummer back out for that just on the basis of matchups.

vince

Me, watching game three last year “I wish we had a manager that didn’t have such a quick, panicky hook”

monkey’s paw curls

knoxfire30

Gonna stick to the more positive vibe, that yankees team isnt some juggernaut to be feared. The sox got swept in their park but easily could of taken 2 of the 3… sometimes the woulda shoulda coulda talk is for losers, but its a young sox team that got a taste of a very competitive series and I like our chances in a playoff series especially if we get anything out of Jiminez, robert, even Engel… granted they were without stanton .

HallofFrank

Agreed. I even thought they looked good against Cole early. If they would just stop hitting into double and triple plays…

xubrent

The silver lining is this series helps level set their internal assessment a little bit. Outside the comfort of AL-C, they have to push a little harder to get the results. I think this team got a little more love over the last month than they deserved. But that aren’t too far from where they need to be.
In my opinion, this team has outstanding starting pitching, better than expected offense, but is sub-par defensively and in the bullpen. I hope Hahn recognizes the in-season opportunity and strengthens the bullpen.