White Sox 3, Yankees 2: Lenyn-ism fends off Yankee overreach

Tim Hill getting designated for assignment by last year's White Sox in June, only to go on to be a crucial cog in an AL pennant-winning bullpen for the Yankees was rightly derided as another disastrous outcome for the worst team ever. The 2024 Sox were supposed to have a decent defense and instead had a terrible one, and few felt it more than the contact-oriented lefty reliever.

But Hill also just didn't pitch very well in Chicago, and it was high time someone exposed that truth. Enter humankind's agent of chaos in Lenyn Sosa, who squared up a thigh-high sinker and drilled a go-ahead solo shot out to dead center with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, another once unfathomable moment in one of baseball's strangest breakout seasons.

"Very exciting, emotional to be able to hit a homer against a team like them in that situation," Sosa said via interpreter.

The go-ahead dinger in the bottom of the eighth the sort of moment that can be effectively a game-winning hit at home, but assumes the satisfactory completion of the top of the ninth. And smack in the middle of a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, the White Sox did not have Devin Williams, David Bednar and Camilo Doval at the ready. Hell, it's not even clear when Bryse Wilson arrived Sunday.

Instead, Will Venable brought Cam Booser back out for a left-on-left matchup with Trent Grisham right after he had barely pitched over a pair of two-out walks to escape the eighth. And so after Grishman predictably walked to lead off the ninth, Mike Vasil was called upon to calmly navigate Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. The Rule 5 pick rookie picked up his third save, but true to form, it was not calm.

"We had an idea coming in with our availability, or lack of availability with some guys, it was going to look a bit different on the back end," Venable said. "But still have nothing but confidence in those guys. Booser and Vas and Wikelman [González], they did a great job. To win games, especially toward the end of the series, everyone has to step up."

After two moderately scary and extremely high fly outs, Vasil shrugged off Grisham stealing second to paint the inside corner with a 97 mph front door sinker to freeze Bellinger and preserve a solid outing for the pitching staff, even with the bulk of their high leverage arms unavailable. He also exploded upon the strike three call, but a lot of work led up to that climax.

"Some profanity and 'I'm him!'" Vasil said of what he yelled, which many of his teammates were imitating during his post game interview. "So, didn't yell 'I'm Batman,' just 'I'm him.'

"I've talked about it with [Ethan] Katz before, but any time you're in that situation, especially against a team like that, you have to get ahead. They're not gonna expand, they're gonna make you earn it in the strike zone. So you gotta be able to get ahead, and then you have to really, really trust your stuff and know you can get them out with whatever you execute."

Starting pitcher Martín Pérez was so jacked up for this start that he hit 92 mph on the gun, and the worst thing you could say about his smoke-and-mirrors act is it doesn't work on Aaron Judge. The reigning AL MVP obliterated an attempt to jam him with a cutter for a solo shot to dead center in the first, and a plate-splitting sinker achieved its objective of keeping him in the ballpark in unideal fashion in the third. Sure, Judge blasted it 109 mph out to dead center, but didn't get under it quite enough, and it merely nailed the top of the wall for a double. That Cody Bellinger got another sinker in a hit-me location for a two-out RBI double immediately afterward to score Judge muted the feeling of accomplishment.

But Pérez's attempts to change speeds that looked so feeble against arguably the best hitter on the planet still looked crisp against the rest of the Yankees, even as he pitched over traffic in all but one of his six innings. Venable went out for a chat with his old teammate after Pérez's own fielding error put two on with one out in the sixth for Anthony Volpe, and he was rewarded when Pérez got the Yankees shortstop to roll over a changeup for an inning-ending double play.

"It was a different lineup, made me work a little bit more," Pérez said. "I missed my spot against Judge and he hit a homer, but we got the win and that's most important for me."

Yankees starter Luis Gil didn't have the sort of stuff that powered his 14-strikeout performance against the Sox last May, but he still dominated them in the zone all the same, so the only impact the home team made came outside of it. Will Robertson had his first offensive impact of note with the major league club in the second, slicing a high fastball over José Caballero's head in left to trade places with Curtis Mead with an RBI double.

With the Sox still trailing 2-1 in the sixth, Colson Montgomery ended his interminably long two-game homer drought by stretching out those long arms to scoop a low and a way slider just over the wall in center. It took a conference of umpires, but not a full replay review to confirm that the ball had clanged off the railing next to a seat, not the top of the wall, back onto the field. But for a second, Montgomery had his second career triple rather than his 15th home run.

"I switched to a different kind of torpedo, more modified to my swing," Montgomery said. "It’s barrel all the way to the end a little bit. It’s been doing pretty good. I’m able to cover the outside part of the plate. Even the ball today, it was a little bit off, able to get the arms extended and stay through the ball."

Why settle for three when four is readily accessible? That's a question for the Yankees to ask themselves on the flight home.

Bullet points:

*Judge's first inning blast pulled him into a tie with Yogi Berra on the all-time Yankees home run list with 358.

*Mike Tauchman robbed Giancarlo Stanton of a two-run shot by scaling the right field fence to end the third. Then he led off the bottom of the inning, struck out, but reached on a passed ball while looking as limited as ever running to first.

*The Rate Field scoreboard shorted out in around the fourth or fifth. I would be more precise about the timing, but usually the scoreboard is my point of reference.

*Monday's starter is still TBA after Aaron Civale was claimed off waivers shortly before first pitch, despite the arrival of Wilson.

Record: 49-88 | Box score | Statcast