Cole shines as Yankees edge White Sox 3-2

The Yankees took down the White Sox 3-2 to kick off their week in Chicago 2-0. Gerrit Cole got the start for the Yankees and faced off against Anthony Kay. 

“Always fun to play behind Gerrit,” Max Schueman said of Cole. “He turns it to a different level every time he's on the mound, and yeah, man, it's just really fun to play behind him.” 

Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice and Amed Rosario struck out in order in the top half of the first inning. 

Cole worked a 1-2-3 bottom half of the first inning and recorded his first strikeout of the ballgame thanks to a nice diving play from Jazz Chisholm Jr. 

Jasson Dominguez and Trent Grisham kicked off the second inning with back-to-back singles. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Anthony Volpe then just missed a three-run shot but trotted into second base with an RBI double. A few batters later, Schueman drove in two more runs with a two-run double down the third base line to make it 3-0. 

https://youtu.be/qgzOGghnz1o

“Just trying to get a pitch in the middle of the zone,” Schueman said. “And, you know, he made some pitches early in that count. And ultimately, I kind of just stayed on the fastball, and it paid off.”

Cole worked a shutdown bottom of the second inning and picked up his second punchout of the ballgame. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Cole allowed a leadoff double, then walked a batter, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. But he induced a couple of flyouts and a groundout to work a scoreless 32-pitch inning. 

“I made a bunch of poor pitches that inning,” Cole said. “And maybe I got a little fortunate. I ended up making just enough good pitches, I think, to get out of it. Never gave up. Just kept competing. And started to settle into the stretch as the inning went on.”

Cole retired the White Sox in order in the bottom half of the fifth inning and picked up his fifth strikeout of the ballgame in the process. Cole navigated around a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth to work a scoreless inning and notched his sixth and seventh punchouts of the game. 

The birthday boy, Angel Chivilli, who turned 24 today, replaced Cole on the mound in the bottom of the seventh and worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning.

Final line for Cole: Six shutout innings, four hits allowed, walked two, and struck out seven on 99 pitches. He threw his fastball 49% of the time, the slider 22%, the knuckle curve 16%, and the changeup 12%. Cole topped out at 98.8 mph, averaging 97.2 mph on the heater, and had 14 whiffs. 

“I thought that we were aggressive with the fastball, using it to all quadrants of the strike zone, and that set up a lot of other pitches for us,” Cole said. 

Brent Headrick took over for Chivilli on the mound in the bottom half of the eighth and worked a scoreless inning on just five pitches thanks to another nice play by Jazz. 

The Yankees closer, David Bednar, got the call for the bottom of the ninth and allowed a two-run home run to Chase Meidroth to make it a one-run game and end Bednar’s 24-inning scoreless streak. Bednar would go on to strike out former Yankee Everson Pereira to end the ballgame and pick up the save. 

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Cam Schlittler on the mound facing off against Davis Martin. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on Prime Video. 

My thoughts on the game: Great start from Cole tonight; it looks like he is starting to look like his old self. Chivilli was unhittable tonight; his changeup is nasty. Headrick with another scoreless appearance; he leads the MLB with 46 scoreless outings. Bednar gave up his first runs since May 18; I was surprised he was available; they have been using him a lot lately. Jazz didn't have any hits tonight, but he was unreal defensively, making a couple of great plays at second base. The Yankees offense didn't do too much with just six hits and three runs, but they did just enough. Dominguez had a multi-hit game; his at-bats have looked so much better right-handed this year. Volpe and Schueman each had an RBI double, accounting for all three of the Yankees' runs. The Rays also lost tonight, so the Yankees are now just 1.5 games back from them at the top of the AL East. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to win the series with Schlittler on the mound.