On Saturday afternoon, the New York Yankees faced off against the Chicago White Sox. With the sun beating down on Yankee Stadium and the ball slippery as sweat dripped down the pitchers’ arms, the Bombers narrowly managed to escape a surging Chicago team that mounted their best attempt at a comeback.
The Yankees tallied seven runs in the win, thanks to a DJ LeMahieu Grand Slam in the 2nd inning, driving in Gleyber Torres, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Aaron Hicks. However, things quickly became murky when Nestor Cortes threw one poorly located pitch. A 3-run homer by Jose Abreu drew the Sox within two runs, providing a bit of hope.
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Good news and bad news in Yankees’ win over Chicago:
Offensively, the Yankees performed well, striking out only three times. The White Sox struck out 14 times, but the Yankees’ eight hits powered them to victory. Giancarlo Stanton had a phenomenal performance, recording three hits on four at-bats. He raised his batting average to .309 on the season with a .357 on-base percentage.
Stanton has been absolutely electric in the month of May, hitting .333 with a 41.8% on base rate and 1.155 OPS. Over his last eight games, Stanton has recorded 14 hits and four home runs.
The most exciting moment of the game was when Josh Donaldson and Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson began jawing at one another, escalating a previous altercation. The benches cleared with Anderson trying to get a piece of Donaldson before the two teams simmered down and finished the game without any more hostility.
This is a situation that has been developing for a few weeks, so we should keep an eye on it as the series continues during Sunday’s doubleheader.
As for the Yankees pitching, Nestor Cortes once again posted another successful outing. Over 5.0 innings, he struck out seven batters, allowing three runs and six hits. He tallied 100 total pitches, 69 of them being strikes. Cortes features a 1.80 ERA on the year, and while this is one of his worst performances, it was still plenty good enough to propel the Yankees to victory.
However, bullpen ace Michael King gave up two earned runs and three hits in just one inning of action. The rest of the bullpen performed well, but King recorded an anomaly, having taken a significant step forward with his development this year.
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