The White Sox entered Thursday leading the American League with 4.8 runs scored per game; an important detail to file away whenever they do something like get shutout for nine innings in a crucial series finale against one of the best teams in baseball.
After winning their last two games against the Yankees in their last at-bat, they also lead the AL with nine walk-off victories. And because Fernando Cruz threw four-straight bad ones to Tristan Peters with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th, this one was literal. If you love a team for coming through in the clutch, you have to forgive them when that word actually just describes what you're doing to your own chest.
"They're already there," said Will Venable when asked if he's seeing any gray hairs in the mirror after the last two days. "Tough couple games where we really had to grind it, contributions from everybody. Obviously in extra innings, there's a ton of situational stuff that you have to execute, and guys really executed well."
Certainly there's reason for tension, after exhausting almost every other option, Venable turned to embattled former closer Seranthony Domínguez to handle the 11th. But after a deep Paul Goldschmidt fly out pushed Jasson Domínguez to third, Domínguez got Max Schuemann to swing through a backup slider before Anthony Volpe rolled over a perfectly placed two-strike sweeper to end the threat. Cruz, a splitter savant, threw five-straight to strike out Miguel Vargas after intentionally walking Munetaka Murakami in the bottom half. Then after Sam Antonacci smacked an infield single that Ben Rice barely kept in the infield, he fell behind Colson Montgomery 3-0 before getting him to go around on a full count splitter to force Peters to the dish.
Four-straight high and wide fastballs allowed Peters to make an easier decision.
"Tough to be patient, especially when you want to be that guy to walk it off," said Peters, who was the walk-off her in this season's home opener as well. "I'd seen him--was it the night before? His splitter's really nasty, and that's what I was expecting him to throw me. I was just going to tighten up the zone, shrink it, and try to get my pitch."
With Trent Grishman whacking a first-pitch fastball off fellow lefty Chris Murphy has he worked for the fifth time in a seven-game homestand, and Andrew Benintendi poking a backdoor slider through a drawn-in infield off Angel Chivilli after a wild pitch pushed Peters to third, the White Sox and Yankees traded singles to score their extra runners in the 10th. A replay review determined Chase Meidroth didn't have quite enough stretch at first for a double play on a poor Ali Sánchez bunt in the top half, and no review was needed when Meidroth chopped into an inning-ending double play to end the bottom.
"To be honest, I was trying to hit a fly ball to the outfield and kind of got away with it," Benintendi said. "You're hoping that pitching and hitting click at the same time, but a lot of times that's not the case. Today the offense obviously wasn't doing what we were hoping to do. But Burke and the bullpen threw unbelievable. Burke's been throwing the ball really well for us, and the bullpen last couple of games has been nails."
The White Sox lost 102 games last year and now are leading the AL Central, so there's a lot of day-to-day conversations that feel like they're discussing champagne problems. Which is to say that Sean Burke's fifth-straight quality start, third double-digit strikeout performance of July, and six scoreless innings against the Yankees weren't always the most efficient.
"I honestly thought after like the third, fourth inning, my fastball command was pretty bad," Burke said after lowering his ERA to 1.42 over his last eight outings. "When you have confidence with all your stuff, it's a little bit easier to game plan. There's just more ways you make it through."
A catcher's interference and a walk put the first two runners of the day aboard, before two strikeouts and getting Spencer Jones to pop up a high heater ended a 20-pitch first. Burke struck out five-straight Yankees hitters for one stretch across the second and third, and missed bats with five different pitches, but had to weather some tighter spots to post his last three zeroes.
Burke froze Volpe with a curve to strand a pair of runners in the fourth, got a pair of lineouts from Grisham (softer, to center) and Rice (harder, to short) to strand an Austin Wells double, and was spared a leadoff triple from Domínguez in the sixth when the Yankee right fielder overslid the third base bag and was calmly tagged out by Colson Montgomery. That served to make the two routine fly outs Burke induced to end the sixth feel more...routine.
Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers didn't flash 97 mph as much as Burke, but delivered one more inning of scoreless baseball on a day where both managers were trying to work around bullpens exhausted from the night before. Weathers' sinker-slider combination racked up 11 groundball outs, and he wriggled out of his tightest spots by defanging Colson Montgomery's year-long success against left-handed pitching.
"A tough offensive day leading up to [the finish], where Weathers I thought did a really good job getting us to expand below the zone," said Venable. "A lot of soft ground balls that we saw today, and we just kept grinding."
Weathers fell behind 3-0 to Montgomery after hits from Munetaka Murakami and Randal Grichuk, but his plate-splitting challenge sinker had enough...sink on it to induce an inning-ending rollover. When the Sox opened the six with some noise as Miguel Vargas lined out to short, and Grichuk followed him with a single, Montgomery rolled over another sinker out and over the plate for an inning-ending double play. Those were both of the at-bats with runners in scoring position that the Sox managed against the Yankee starter.
In the end, they wouldn't really need a hit with RISP after all.
Bullet points:
*The Yankees' daily ability to grind the game to a halt to litigate some mundane detail was on display early. They challenged to get a Grisham check-swing on a ball overturned and called as catcher's interference in the top of the first, and successfully challenged Ben Rice swinging a tag down onto the crown of Chase Meidroth's helmet at first base in the bottom half. It's like they made a baseball team out of small claims court.
*The Sox had nuked both of their challenges by the third inning, and in emphatic fashion. Everson Pereira challenged a second inning strike three call that made no contact with any edge of the zone, and Edgar Quero lost the other one the first batter of the next half inning on a 1-2 fastball to the No. 9 hitter Wells that missed by inches. Wells struck out on the very next pitch. Quero did line an 11th inning single to put the winning run on second for Meidroth.
*On top of Domínguez's TOOTBLAN on a play where he would have easily been safe at third, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was picked off to end the seventh after leading off the inning with a single. Chisholm later left the game looking uncomfortable while running.
*29,384 in attendance is pretty good for a Thursday getaway day game, but the Yankees always help.
