Yankees storm back to take series opener in Chicago
- Davis Cornell
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
The Yankees took down the White Sox 9-5 in the first game of a four-game series after a 20-minute rain delay. Max Fried got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Noah Schultz.
With two outs in the top of the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt lined a single to right field. But Jasson Dominguez struck out to end the frame.
Fried allowed a leadoff double in the bottom of the first, followed by a single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Colson Montgomery gave the White Sox an early 1-0 lead with an RBI single through the right side of the infield. Chase Meidroth tacked on another run via a sacrifice fly. Braden Montgomery extended the White Sox lead to 3-0 on an RBI triple.
In the bottom of the third inning, Fried faced the minimum thanks to a tailor-made 4-6-6 double play.
Ben Rice and Goldy each worked walks to start the fourth inning, putting runners at first and second with nobody out. Dominguez followed with a single to load the bases. Anthony Volpe got the Yankees on the board thanks to an RBI groundout. The next batter, Jazz Chisholm Jr., stung a two-run double into the right-center gap to tie the game up at 3-3. Jazz caught the White Sox napping as he moved up to third base on a delayed steal. Spencer Jones drove in Jazz with an RBI groundout to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead.
Angel Chivilli replaced Fried on the mound in the bottom of the fourth and navigated around a two-out single to work a shutdown inning.
Final line for Fried: Three innings pitched, five hits allowed, three earned runs, walked two, and struck out four on 66 pitches. Fried threw his sinker 26% of the time, the cutter 20%, the fastball 15%, the sweeper 12%, the changeup 11%, the curveball 11%, and the slider 6%. He topped out at 97.2 mph, sitting at 95.6 mph on his heater, and had seven whiffs.
“I would say that it wasn't great, wasn't terrible,” Fried said. “Didn't have very much command of my sinker today, which led to the couple of walks to the left-handers. Just was able to make some pitches when I needed to, but obviously wasn't able to stop the bleeding in the first, and I wish I would have been able to make a couple more pitches there.”
Tim Hill took over for Chivilli in the bottom of the fifth and allowed a one-out double followed by a game-tying RBI single to Colson Montgomery. Fernando Cruz took over with one out and a runner on first and picked up the final two outs to keep the game tied.
Cruz came back out for the bottom of the sixth and picked up the first two outs. Brent Headrick came in relief for Cruz and picked up a flyout to end the inning.
Amed Rosario pinch-hit for Jones to lead off the seventh inning and dunked a bloop double that just stayed fair in right field. They tried to back pick Rosario, and it was thrown into center field, allowing him to move up to third with nobody out. With two outs, the Yankees were in danger of stranding Rosario, but Rice came through with an RBI single to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead.
Headrick remained in the game for the bottom of the seventh and allowed a two-out single. He allowed a double in the left field corner, and the White Sox tried to tie it, but Max Schuemann and Volpe teamed up to execute a perfect relay throw and gun down the tying run at the plate.
“Definitely clutch; Schumann went right away to get the ball,” Sánchez said. “It was a great relay from Volpe, and I'm glad we got the out at the plate.”
Dominguez and Volpe kicked off the eighth inning with back-to-back singles. Jazz then laid down a perfect bunt single, and Dominguez was able to come around to score on a throwing error from Sean Newcomb to make it 6-4. Then Ali Sánchez crushed his first career home run to deep left field, a three-run blast to make it a 9-4 ballgame.
“I mean, that's a moment that I always talk with my teammates about, and it's just special,” Sánchez said. “I felt that I was living a dream, running the bases. Just a little kid running from Venezuela in a small town, just running the bases. That's it.”
Paul Blackburn got the call for the bottom of the eighth and worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 shutdown inning.
Camilo Doval came in for the bottom half of the ninth. With one out, a runner reached on an E5 from José Caballero, and Doval walked a batter. It then looked like Doval induced a routine pop-up to end the game, but Volpe dropped it to allow a run to score, making it 9-5. The Yankees were forced to turn to their closer, David Bednar, who picked up a strikeout to end the game.
The Yankees will be back at it tomorrow for the second game of the series with Gerrit Cole on the mound facing off against Anthony Kay. First pitch is slated for 7:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Great win tonight; the offense really showed up even with Judge, Stanton and Belli all on the IL. Fried was decent; I wish he wasn't on a pitch count, it looked like he was starting to figure it out towards the end. Chivilli had a scoreless inning; he has been a hidden gem in the Yankees bullpen, not allowing any earned runs in 10.1 innings since he returned from the IL. Hill was getting hit around a little bit; he has looked great for a couple of weeks now. Cruz picked up four huge outs tonight. Headrick picked up four outs as well, his 45th scoreless appearance of the year, which leads baseball. Blackburn had an easy scoreless inning as his ERA is down to 1.89. Doval looked decent, but unfortunately the defense didn't help him as a couple of errors forced him to throw extra pitches. Bednar was solid. I wish the Yankees didn't have to use him; now he might not be available tomorrow. The Yankees' offense showed up tonight with 10 hits and nine runs. Sánchez had the biggest swing of his life, crushing a three-run home run for his first career bomb. Jazz had a big two-run double. Rice came through with a big RBI single. Jones had an RBI groundout, a rare productive out from this lineup. Jazz, Rice, and Dominguez all had multi-hit games. Just a great night for the Yankees all around. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to make it two in a row with Cole on the mound.
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