The Yankees series against the abysmal Chicago White Sox these past few days has been much more interesting than many expected. Blowout wins for both teams, 3-HR performances and historic feats all highlight these past few days in Chicago.
Let’s dive into the Yankees’ most recent series win and all the highlights from each game.
8/12: White Sox 12, Yankees 2
Yeah, that happened. Don’t want to talk about it other than the fact that this would be the game that Jazz Chisholm gets hurt, which occurred in the below play:
Before Tuesday’s game, it was announced that Jazz Chisholm Jr. will likely be headed to the IL with a UCL injury.
With surgery, most likely Tommy John, being a real possibility for Chisholm, the Yankees are suffering a tough blow. Chisholm’s acquisition had rejuvenated the Yankee clubhouse and fanbase after a rough stretch in June and early July.
If Chisholm were to need TJ and miss the rest of the season, he will add to an already extensive list of trade deadline acquisitions the Yankees made in recent years that missed extensive time with injury.
8/13: Yankees 4, White Sox 1
Tuesday night’s game was a better showing for the Yankee pitching. Nasty Nestor Cortes turned in his best start of the year, throwing 7 shutout innings of 3 hit ball while striking out a season-high 9 batters (which he’s done 2 other times this year).
Not every team is like the White Sox, but it is nice to see Nestor turn in an outing Yankee fans saw a lot more frequently in recent seasons. With Clarke Schmidt coming back, there will be an odd man out and Nestor seemed to be that odd man. However, with his outing against Chicago as well as Luis Gil’s struggles the other night, who knows what Boone will do.
Offensively, the Yankees got all 4 of their runs off the bat of Juan Soto.
Soto hit a 2-run homer in the top of the 3rd followed by a pair of solo shots in the 5th and 7th innings for his first career 3 HR game. Soto also leads the league in multi-homer games with 6.
It’s hard to imagine where this team would be without Judge and Soto. Without a doubt the best duo in all of sports, Judge and Soto are both top 5 in all of baseball in Batting Average, Home Runs, Total Bases, Slugging and WAR. They’re also top two in On-Base Percentage, OPS and Walks.
If the Yankees don’t re-sign Soto, we riot.
8/14: Yankees 10, White Sox 2
In Wednesday night’s rubber match between the Yankees and the White Sox, the Yankees got a much better performance from rookie Will Warren than his previous start. Warren’s final line (5.0 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER & 5 K) kept the Yankees in the game as they trailed 2-1 heading into the top of the 7th.
With Oswaldo Cabrera on second and 1 out, Alex Verdugo hit a ball to the gap between center and right that would’ve easily moved Cabrera to third. However, Cabrera had a different idea.
With the game now tied at 2 and with Soto and Judge both in scoring position with 2 outs in the 7th, Austin Wells would come up with a chance to put the Yankees ahead.
Wells would go 3-5 with a homer in the 8th as well in the cleanup spot and continues to make his case as the Yankees’ full time catcher and clean-up hitter.
The Yankees would plate two more to cushion their lead to 6-2 in the 8th when rookie White Sox manager Grady Sizemore made the puzzling choice to intentionally walk Juan Soto. Now this move does make sense given the fact that Soto had 4 home runs in the last two games against Chicago.
In most instances, you walk Soto. However, do you want to walk Soto with Aaron Judge on deck?
Judge would come up to plate with 2 runners on while sitting at 299 career home runs. His next swing would make history.
Judge hit his 300th career HR came in career game number 955, making him the fastest player in MLB history to achieve such a feat.
Upcoming Series @ Detroit Tigers (8/16-8/18)
The Yankees midwest road trip will continue on Friday when they start a 3-game series against the Detroit Tigers.
The projected pitching matchups can be seen below:
8/17: Carlos Rodon vs. Keider Montero
8/18: Marcus Stroman vs. Tarik Skubal
Although the Tigers might not seem as formidable as other opponents, I am very interested in seeing how the Yankee bats will fair on Sunday against AL Cy Young frontrunner Tarik Skubal.
It would’ve been a great pitching matchup if Skubal were slated to go up against last year’s AL Cy Young Winner in Gerrit Cole but it should still be a fun weekend for some baseball in Detroit.
