White Sox 9, Yankees 6 (6 innings): It’s Eloy season

White Sox win

Eloy Jiménez finally homered.

And then he homered again.

It would’ve been a good night even if the rest of the White Sox offense hadn’t joined in. As it stands, the White Sox extended the misery of the injury-riddled Yankees and snapped their own five-game skid. Thanks to a persistent rain that only intensified, they could do it in just six innings.

Jiménez’s first blast made the difference, as his backspin-laden drive on a high 92-mph Jonathan Holder fastball carried over the wall right just of center to break a 5-5 tie in the fifth inning.

His second one — a mammoth 446-footer off Chad Green to Yankee Stadium’s cavernous left-center field in the top of the seventh — gave the Sox a little bit of breathing room after the White Sox needed four pitchers to hold the Yanks to one run in the bottom of the sixth.

James McCann then made it back-to-back with a shot to the short porch in right, and the game was halted afterward.

Jiménez provided some finishing power for a lineup that was feisty from the first pitch, which Leury García smacked to center for a leadoff double. He came around to score on Yonder Alonso’s two-out single after Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu threatened to strand him by striking out.

The White Sox needed to scrap and scrape and scramble offensively, because run prevention continues to be a mess.

Lucas Giolito picked up his second win of the season the way he won 10 games last year — wobbling early, but getting a lot of support. Granted, Anderson didn’t help when he bounced a throw to allow Giolito’s second batter to reach, but Giolito then walked the next two to load the bases before D.J. LeMahieu drove two in with a single. It could’ve been worse, but García threw to third instead of home, getting Gleyber Torres in a rundown to end the inning.

Giolito then fell behind 4-1 after two after starting the second with a walk, double and RBI single. Aaron Judge drove home a run with a sac fly for the latter run.

But the Yankees have their own run-prevention problems, and those surfaced starting in the fourth.

J.A. Happ issued walks to McCann and Adam Engel over the first four batters of the inning, which isn’t easy to do. Up came García, who swung at a first pitch for the third time, and deposited his second double into the right-field corner to bring both runners home.

After Brett Gardner tomahawked a very high Giolito fastball into the first rows of the short porch in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 5-3 game, Alonso returned the favor in the top of the fifth. After Jose Abreu singled, Alonso ripped a line drive that clipped the top of the wall, bounced up and over for a game-tying two-run shot.

Yoan Moncada then followed with a grounder to the left side that Torres couldn’t round off, which ended Happ’s night. In came Holder, out went Jiménez, and the White Sox took a 7-5 lead.

Giolito made a mess of it in the sixth. He walked LeMahieu, then gave up a single through the middle before Rick Renteria came out for the first of three trips. Jose Ruiz went 1-for-2, giving up an RBI single to Gio Urshela but striking out Austin Romine. Jace Fry then entered to face Gardner and got a grounder to short for a fielder’s choice.

With Judge coming to the plate and the rain coming down, Nate Jones entered. Jones looked profoundly uncomfortable in the downpour, nearly beaning Judge with a two-seamer, then plunking him in the arm with a full-count slider. He took even more time facing Luke Voit with the bases loaded, but Voit’s line drive to left found Jiménez’s glove for the final out.

I’m not sure how Renteria would’ve managed the last three innings, but he didn’t have to. Jones got the save.

Bullet points:

*Giolito’s game could’ve been worse considering he mostly relied on his fastball. He only got one swinging strike between 22 curves and changeups. He issued four walks and six strikeouts over his five innings.

*Anderson is now hitting .488 after going 1-for-4. He also stole his fifth bag.

*José Rondón was the only White Sox to go hitless, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Record: 4-8 | Box score | Highlights

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16 Comments
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asinwreck

The Sox will be terrible, but beating the Yankees in the Bronx while Eloy hits two mammoth blasts? Highlight of my year to date.

ndsoxfan

I’m out for my bday/the White Sox games.  Skipped tonight due to weather.  Any recommendations for the stadium?

Yolmer

Eloy is going to be so good. The power has arrived, but even when he was in a slump he was hitting close to .300.

PopeDonnPall

Most joy I’ve felt watching a game this year. Big stage, big Eloy.

Brett R. Bobysud

Not a bad place to get your first 2 major league HRs, Eloy.

As I’ve said before, this team is bad, but Tim, Yoan, & Eloy are gonna keep me tuned in to see what they do each game.

roke1960

Yep, we’ve definitely got 3 pieces to build around. Now for filling in those other 22 spots…

Brett R. Bobysud

I mean, it’s a really small sample size at the moment, so I’m not quite ready to pencil in those 3 as fixtures on a good team.

Let’s see if they can keep this up over a full season.

denbum

Re: these 3 –
For as much bashing that myself and others do over the coaching, I’ll give a tip-of-the-cap kudos to Steverson/Sparks IF they’re responsible for assisting with Timmy’s development with the bat. If Vizquel arrives here, maybe he can be a strong influence on TA’s defense.
W Sox have Aaron Rowand on staff, I believe. Anyone know if he or anyone else is working with Eloy OF growth in particular?
While with Boston org, Moncada’s lofty ceiling comp was R Cano. With W Sox, it was looking more like Buford or Durham, but with more K’s. Now that he’s at 3rd and assumingly ’emerged’, who’s his ceiling comp now?

denbum

The sound of the ball off the bat for these 3 is so noticeably off the charts. Abreu and Palka (last yr) somewhat also. When Eloy and Yoan make solid contact, the sound brings back distinct memories of Dick Allen and a few others.

John SF

A playoff contender only needs 7-10 of those players.   Arguably Lopez or Giolito might grow into that.   Hopefully Kopech and Cease both are as well. 

Add in Robert, and unlikely, just one good FA signing, and we would be at 9 stars.   Fill out the rest of the roster with 1-2 win players and AAA depth and you can squint a certain way and imagine a really good team.    

Obviously, if we had drafted players better than Fulmer, Burger, and Burdi things would be better. Or if we had signed Machado or Harper.  

lil jimmy

Best news. The big boys in the bullpen are fresh and ready to go for the last two games.
Nova should get up for this one.
Sweep the Yankees, make my year.

lil jimmy

CC is being activated today for his first start. Nova is a five inning pitcher. It looks like the 6,7,8,9 innings will be all bullpen. Josh Osich, show us what you got!

Patrick Nolan

LAMANTHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Yolmer

What is that a reference to. Do you think he is a big Don Quixote fan?

Patrick Nolan

It’s his twitter handle

Yolmer

I know, but why did he pick that?