Bronx Bombers stay hot: Bellinger, Grisham, Jazz homer in a 10-4 win

Chicago—The Yankees took down the White Sox 10-4 in game one of this four-game set. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Davis Martin. 

In the top half of the first inning, Aaron Judge worked a two-out walk. The next batter, Cody Bellinger, launched a two-run bomb, his 26th of the year, to quickly make it 2-0 Yankees. 

"Yeah, you know, it's definitely always important," Belli said on taking the early lead. "You know, given your starting pitcher, a little bit of a breather there, or a little less of a hole. So we've been swinging it well, and you just gotta keep on rolling." 

Warren worked around back-to-back two-out singles in the bottom of the first inning to put together a scoreless frame. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the top of the second inning with a solo shot, his 26th of the year, to make it a 3-0 game. Anthony Volpe reached on an E4, then stole second base. The next batter, Trent Grisham, worked a walk. Ben Rice followed that up with a two-out RBI single to make it 4-0. 

With two outs in the bottom of the second inning, Miguel Vargas launched a game-tying grand slam to make it 4-4 thanks to Anthony Volpe's 18th error of the season, making all the runs unearned for Warren. 

With two outs in the top of the fourth inning, Volpe sent a double into the left field corner to break out of a 0-for-25 slide. Grisham grounded out to strand Volpe at second base. 

Rice led off the top of the fifth inning with a line drive single to left. The next batter, Judge, reached on an infield single, and an E5 allowed Rice to score to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. Vargas, the White Sox first baseman, had to leave the game after a collision with Judge. The next batter, Belli, just missed a home run but did pick up a double; Judge was only able to move up to third to put runners on second and third, nobody out. Judge then made a bad base running mistake, not going on contact, leading to Belli getting thrown out at third. Judge ended up scoring anyway on a sac fly off the bat of Jazz to make it a 6-4 game. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Warren walked a batter and gave up a single, but got back-to-back hitters to fly out to help work into and out of trouble. 

Fernando Cruz replaced Warren in the bottom of the sixth inning and retired the White Sox in order with a strikeout. 

Will Warren's final line: five innings pitched, five hits allowed, four runs, but zero were earned due to the Volpe error, two walks, seven swings and misses, and three strikeouts on 93 pitches. Warren threw his fastball 55% of the time, the sinker 24%, the sweeper 16%, the curveball 4%, and the changeup 1% of the time. Warren was decent tonight outside of the grand slam, but that at-bat should have never happened if it wasn't for the Volpe error. But Warren's command wasn't great either. 

"Yeah, definitely, you know, it has been way better," Warren said. "Tonight was a gritty one, I would put it that way, behind a lot, like you said. And that never puts us in a spot to have success. Luckily, tonight, it went our way besides the one pitch." 

Luke Weaver took over for Cruz in the bottom half of the seventh and worked an easy 1-2-3 inning with a pair of punchouts. 

In the top of the eighth inning, Paul Goldschmidt reached via an E5, Ryan McMahon followed that up with a double in the right-center gap to set the Yankees up with two runners in scoring position with no outs. Volpe picked up a sacrifice fly to make it a 7-4 ballgame. The next batter, Grisham, crushed a two-run home run, his 27th of the year, to make it a 9-4 game. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Devin Williams came in to replace Weaver on the mound and struck out the side in order. 

Belli and Jazz both picked up singles in the top of the ninth to put runners at the corners with one out. Jazz then swiped second base, his 24th stolen base of the year. Goldy Knocks delivered a sacrifice fly to make it a 10-4 game. 

Mark Leiter Jr. was called upon to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning and set the White Sox down in order to end the one 10-4. 

The Yankees will try to make it a season-high six-game win streak tomorrow with Carlos Rodon facing the team that drafted him and where he threw a no-hitter back in 2021, facing off against former Yankee Yondreys Gomez. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

"You know, same thing, show up tomorrow, understand, you know, baseball game, anything can happen," Belli said on how the Yankees can keep rolling. "So just staying locked in, staying prepared, and ultimately just trying to win the game any way we can." 

My thoughts on the game: Warren was decent tonight, could have been better, but didn't get any help from Volpe at shortstop. The offense was awesome tonight with 12 hits and 10 runs, plus home runs from Jazz, Belli, and Grisham. The Yankees' lineup is starting to look scary as Grisham has 27 home runs with an .830 OPS, Bellinger has 26 home runs with a .847 OPS, Jazz has 26 home runs with a .833 OPS, and Rice has 22 home runs with a .839 OPS. Plus, Judge has 41 home runs with a 1.106 OPS, and Stanton, in just 51 games, has 17 home runs and 1.027 OPS. Jazz has a real chance to have a 30 home run, 30 stolen base season, even with missing all of May. The bullpen was also excellent, as Leiter, Cruz, Williams, and Weaver combined for four shutout innings with seven strikeouts to close this game out. With this win tonight, the Yankees are now four games back from the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East with about a month to play. On to tomorrow as Rodon and the Yankees will look to make it six straight wins. 

“We want to win the division, we don’t just want to get to the wild-card spot,” Jazz said. “Right now, it’s just like, we’re going to go out there and win that and then we’re going to go win the World Series.”

"Yeah, really talented team," Belli said. "It's just fun to be a part of. You know, we show up every day, and our goal is to win. Wins come in many different ways, and we've been swinging it now, and it's fun to be part of, and we're just looking to keep it rolling."