About Last Night: NYY 10, CWS 2

By Ethan Semendinger

August 15th, 2024

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The Yankees- not just one player- finally looked good against the worst team in the MLB. And, Judge hit home run number 300, so that's cool!

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Tim Hill (4-0, 4.31 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Dominic Leone (0-2, 6.63 ERA)

• Save: Michael Tonkin (2)

• Home Runs (New York): Juan Soto (34), Aaron Judge (43), Austin Wells (9)

• Home Runs (Chicago): Gavin Sheets (8)

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Big Story - Prior to the game last night, the Yankees had 67% of their trade deadline acquisitions off their active roster. It took just 14 days for their trade deadline to essentially be null and void.

Jazz Chisholm was removed from Monday's game after he suffered an injury from sliding into home plate (to bring the score to 4-2) in a game that ultimately ended in a 12-2 loss for the Yankees. On Tuesday, he was sent for imaging. And, yesterday, Chisholm was placed on the 10-Day IL with a left elbow strain (which is also being reported as a UCL injury). This is a major loss for the Yankees, as Chisholm was hitting to a .316/.361/.702 triple-slash in his 14 games in pinstripes including 7 home runs and 5 stolen bases. Crud.

Enyel De Los Santos, meanwhile, was one of the two relievers that the Yankees traded for at the deadline. In 5 appearances with the Yankees, he totaled 6.1 innings of relief work while allowing 13 hits, 10 runs (all earned), and 3 walks. This gave him an ERA of 14.21/31 ERA+ with a 2.526 WHIP with the Yankees. He was designated for assignment ahead of last nights game to open up room for starting pitcher Will Warren. Yuck!

(Just for "fun": Mark Leiter Jr. has pitched in 8 games while totaling 7.1 innings for the Yankees so far. He's allowed 13 hits, 5 runs (all earned), and 5 walks (1 intentional) which all combines to a 6.14 ERA/72 ERA+ and a 2.318 WHIP. That's not good.)

In related news, Oswald Peraza is also back up with the team.

Here was the Yankees line-up as they looked to take a (very poorly played) series against the Chicago White Sox:

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Player of the Game -

• Aaron Judge: 2-4, 2 Runs, Double, 3-Run Home Run (#300!), 3 RBI's, 1 BB, 2 K's

Notable Performances -

• Will Warren: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R (2 ER), 0 BB's, 5 K's

• Tim Hill: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 0 K's, Win

• Michael Tonkin: 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 2 K's, Save

• Alex Verdugo: 1-4, Run, Double, 2 RBI's, 2 K's

• Juan Soto: 1-2, 2 Runs, Solo Home Run, 1 RBI, 3 BB's

• Austin Wells: 3-5, Run, 2-Run Home Run, 3 RBI's

• Oswaldo Cabrera: 2-5, 2 Runs, 1 RBI, SB

Better to Forget -

• Gleyber Torres: 0-4, 1 BB

• DJ LeMahieu: 1-5, 3 K's

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The Game - There was one good thing that happened between the beginning of the game and the 7th inning for the Yankees. And, that one good thing happened just 2 batters into the game as Juan Soto hit a solo home run for his 34th of the season, and his 4th in 4 at-bats (going back to Tuesday's 3-3 performance).

Outside of that lone hit, the rest of the Yankees went down easy through the first three innings of last nights game. In the 4th inning, the Yankees finally managed to get another baserunner via an Austin Wells single, but nothing came of this. In the 5th, the Yankees got singles from Trent Grisham (lead-off) and DJ LeMahieu (2-out), but they also weren't brought home, and the Yankees were trailing.

Will Warren was called up (again) from Triple-A ahead of the game last night to be the starting pitcher. As a frequent call-up to the team to fill-in, this match-up was probably the most appropriate to help with the jump from Triple-A to the MLB. And, it should be no surprise that Warren had his best MLB game (in his short 3 game career so far) last night.

A double allowed in the 1st inning didn't amount to anything for Chicago, though the White Sox did score to tie the game with a lead-off solo home run from Gavin Sheets in the 2nd inning. Luckily for the Yankees, Will Warren pitched a solid 3rd inning, though Gavin Sheets came through again with an RBI single in the 4th to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead. Warren would pitch another solid 5th inning before calling it a night. (It is very interesting he pitched great in innings 1, 3, and 5 but not amazing in innings 2 and 4. How odd!)

On the other side of the ball, the Yankees offense was continuing to slowly build up their attack. After getting 1 baserunner in the 4th, and 2 baserunners in the 5th, the Yankees offense worked 3 walks in the 6th to load the bases. But, they would need more time before they scored.

Tim Hill came in for relief and shut down the White Sox in his lone inning of work in the 6th.

In the 7th, the Yankees offense got started by Oswaldo Cabrera, who lead-off the inning with a single. Cabrera stole second during DJ LeMahieu's at-bat (a strikeout), but then came all the way from 2nd to home to turn an Alex Verdugo fly-out into a sacrifice fly. (This was aided by the White Sox center fielder tripping over his teammate after making a great catch, but a run is a run.) Following this, Juan Soto walked and Aaron Judge doubled, before Austin Wells hit a 2-RBI single to give the Yankees the lead.

Michael Tonkin replaced Tim Hill on the mound and the White Sox went down 1-2-3 in the 7th.

In the 8th inning, the Yankees offense continued to show-up. Anthony Volpe hit a lead-off double and came around to score via an Oswaldo Cabrera RBI single. Cabrera moved to second on a wild pitch and came around to score via an Alex Verdugo double. (Yankees 6, White Sox 2.)

And then, newly appointed White Sox manager, Grady Sizemore decided to intentionally walk Juan Soto for his 3rd walk on the game. This was likely to set-up the double-play, and help the White Sox avoid a player who had 4 home runs in the past 2 games. However, this backfired almost immediately because Aaron Judge came to the plate. And- according to his own postgame interview- he was not happy with Sizemore's decision.

After working a 3-0 count, Aaron Judge saw a pitch he liked coming inside, came around on it, and pulled it right over the left field fence for his 300th career home run. It took Judge just 955 career games to achieve this mark, the fastest player (by games played) to do so in MLB history. (The next fastest was Ralph Kiner, in 1,087 career games.)

And, while Judge had his moment, Austin Wells followed up the home-run with a solo shot of his own, giving flash-backs to Judge's first home run being part of a back-to-back duo with Tyler Austin.

The White Sox would escape the 8th inning with no further damage, and they were also unable to do any damage of their own against Michael Tonkin, who pitched the 8th and 9th inning en route to a 3-inning save. Neither team did much of anything in the 9th.

Yankees win! 10-2!

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Wow.

I came into writing this game summary with a lot of annoyance and frustration about this team. They were on the verge of losing a series to the worst team in the MLB this year (and likely one of the worst of all-time), they had just lost their exciting star and big piece of the trade deadline in Jazz Chisholm, and they had just DFA'ed one of the two relievers they traded for.

But, this is the magic of baseball. Through 6 innings, I was getting increasingly frustrated with the team I love. And then, Oswaldo Cabrera showed some hustle, and the dam broke. And, the Yankees- for the first time all series- finally started to hit as a team. (Note: This does not include Juan Soto, who had an amazing series.)

And, it was incredibly cool to watch Aaron Judge hit his 300th career home run. Especially with it coming immediately after the intentional walk to Juan Soto.

So, with that momentous occasion and milestone achieved for Aaron Judge, in a dominant win for the Yankees, I am going to hold off on negativity for tonight and just enjoy the moment.

Let's go Yankees! Congratulations to Aaron Judge!

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Next Up - Tonight, the Yankees are off. (Enjoy the off day!)

Tomorrow, the Yankees (65-45) will embark on their final series of the quick weeklong road trip with a 3-game match-up scheduled against the Detroit Tigers. Gerrit Cole (3-2, 4.70 ERA) is expected to take the mound for the Yankees, though I am unsure who he will face off against as the Tigers have not yet announced their probable starting pitcher.