Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Yankees are in prime position to sweep the Chicago White Sox. After a huge come-from-behind win last night, the Yanks have one last game with the boys from the south side before their hated rivals, the Boston Red Sox, come to the Bronx for a huge four-game series.
Before the Yanks can think about Boston, they have to get through one more game against a team that is out of the running, and by the way they’ve played in this series, completely demoralized.
Last night was one more showing of why the White Sox are where they are. The Yanks could only scrounge together one run in the first seven innings against the only player that was off the trade market on the entire team, Chris Sale. The bottom of the eighth is where everything fell apart for the Sox. With one out in the inning, Derek Jeter hit a single and Robinson Cano followed with a double. White Sox manager Robin Ventura took Sale out of the game and that’s when the Yanks pounced. They proceeded to get three-straight hits to tie up the game at four. Then later in the inning, Eduardo Nunez hit a two-run double and Mariano Rivera immediately began to warm up and closed the deal in the ninth.
It seems like the Sox are trying to help the Yanks make the playoffs at this point, giving up to huge innings in consecutive games: one for eight runs two days ago, and one for five last night. Now the Yanks are going for the sweep against a pitcher making his Major-League debut. Right-hander Erik Johnson will take the mound in the cathedral of baseball and try to prevent a third loss in a row to the home team.
The only thing going for the Sox is that the Yankees typically struggle against pitchers they’ve never seen before, because the majority of the team are veteran players and they use their experience and previous at-bats against pitchers they’ve seen before to their advantage. Still, the rookie is pitching for the White Sox and if they can’t put together a win after seven strong innings from an All-Star pitcher, they’ll find a way to lose this one as well.
Related:
New York Yankees Pull Out Huge Win Despite A Dominant Performance By Chris Sale
