Four homers power Yankees to 12-2 rout of White Sox
- Davis Cornell
- Jun 16
- 4 min read
The Yankees dismantled the White Sox 12-2 to kick off a three-game series in the Bronx. Gerrit Cole got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Davis Martin.
“Just everyone, really just put together a lot of really good at-bats against him,” Aaron Boone said.
Cole quickly picked up the first two outs in the top of the first inning. Then Andrew Benintendi, who was briefly a Yankee back in 2024, made Cole pay for throwing a middle, middle fastball, crushing a solo home run to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt went three up, three down.
The Yankees tied the ballgame up at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning thanks to a solo shot into the second deck in right field from Spencer Jone, his first homer in the Bronx.
“Reality was pretty great,” Jones said of his first home run in the Bronx. “Glad I got to get one in the right field. Hit the ball hard, get the boys going, so it was pretty special.”
Cole worked a 1-2-3 shutdown top of the third inning with a pair of strikeouts, putting his total up to three for the ballgame.
J.C. Escarra led off the bottom of the third inning with an excuse me check swing double down the third base line. No. 9 hitter Anthony Volpe followed with an infield single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Then Rice worked a walk to load the bases. The next batter, Belli drilled a two-run single to right field to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead. Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a walk to reload the bases, then Jone worked a walk to plate another run. José Caballero extended the Yankees' lead to 5-1 via a sacrifice fly.
Cole retired the White Sox in order in the top half of the fourth inning and recorded his fourth punchout of the ballgame.
Escarra led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a base knock, his second hit of the ballgame. A few batters later, Rice crushed a two-run home run off the facade in the second deck in right field, his 20th homer of the year.
Belli followed with a base hit, then Goldy joined the home run barrage with a two-run shot to left field, his 10th of the year, to make it a 9-1 game.
The Yankees kept the scoring going as Jazz singled to right field and Jone walked, his third time reaching base tonight. Ryan McMahon then lined an RBI base hit to right field to give the Yankees double-digit runs. It looked like the fourth inning was finally going to come to an end, but a throwing error from White Sox pitcher Chris Murphy brought another run across. The Yankees batted around in the inning and brought across six runs.
The White Sox went three up, three down against Cole and picked up two more strikeouts, making it 13 straight hitters retired.
In the top of the sixth inning, Cole allowed a leadoff single to break up his streak of 13 straight hitters retired. Then Cole walked a pair to load the bases with two outs. Luisangel Acuña legged out an RBI infield single to cut the Yankees' lead to 11-2.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Caballero lined a single to center field, giving everyone in the Yankees lineup a hit.
Ryan Yarbrough replaced Cole in the top of the seventh and worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 seventh inning, then worked a scoreless eighth inning.
Final line for Cole: Six innings pitched, three hits, two earned runs, walking two, and striking out six on a season high 90 pitches. Statcast was broken for a bit tonight, so 30% of Cole’s pitches were unknown. He threw the fastball 28% of the time, the slider 16%, the sinker 9%, the knuckle curve 9%, and the changeup 9%. He topped out at 97.7 mph, averaging 95.9 on his heater, and had five swings and misses.
“I thought the command got a little bit better as the game went on,” Cole said. “I thought we kept them off-balance and stayed in the strike zone well after getting a lead”
Caballero crushed a solo shot to left field off a potion player in the bottom of the eighth to extend the Yankees' lead to 12-2.
Yarbrough remained in for the top of the ninth inning and retired the White Sox in order to pick up the nine-out save.
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the mound, facing off against Anthony Kay. The first pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
My thoughts on the game: A nice stress-free win for the Yankees, to extend the AL East lead over the Rays to 2 games, and could be 2.5 if the Dodgers can beat the Rays again. Cole was great tonight; he ran out of gas a bit towards the end, but still put together another quality start. Yarbrough did his job as the mop-up guy, picking up nine outs and saving the rest of the bullpen. The offense was unstoppable tonight against Martin, who had one of the best ERAs in baseball coming into tonight before he gave up nine runs. Rice, Jones, Goldy, and Cabby all went deep tonight. Belli and Volpe each had three-hit games. The 7-8-9 hitters McMahon, Volpe and Escarra went a combined 5-for-14 with an RBI and a walk. This offense is unstoppable when they get that kind of production from the bottom of the lineup. The offense was on a tear tonight with 16 hits and 12 runs, just an all-around great game. On to tomorrow with a chance to win the series with Rodon facing his former team.
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