Off sweep of Birds, Bombers drop ball vs. Chisox
You could blame it on the schedule, but the Yankees don’t have a lot of time for excuses. After making up ground in the American League East over a six-game road trip, they returned to the Stadium Monday night looking “sluggish” and lifeless. The Bombers committed three errors and had just three hits as they dropped the series opener to the White Sox, 6-2.
“I am frustrated we didn’t play our best,” Aaron Boone said. “That’s frustrating. We’ve got to get on with it and again, we’re in a tough stretch right now. We’ve got to get some rest, turn the page and go out and support Lance (Lynn) tomorrow and get after it and we will.”
It was frustrating for Yankees fans, who were just getting excited about the division race again. Going 5-1 on the road trip as the Red Sox hit the skids, the Yankees had made up 4.5
games in the race. With the loss Monday, and the Red Sox off, the Bombers are now 6.5 games back.
“Three errors, a crappy eighth and ninth inning there. We just didn’t play well,” Boone said. “Overall I didn’t think we caught the ball very well. There were some unlucky breaks there, some squibbers that set the table, but all in all we didn’t play a very clean brand of baseball tonight.”
Masahiro Tanaka carried a shutout into the sixth, but ultimately took his fifth loss of the season and third straight in four starts. He allowed four runs on 10 hits, walked one and struck out seven.
Reliever A.J. Cole, left fielder Shane Robinson and first baseman Luke Voit all committed errors. Voit, starting his fourth straight game in place of Greg Bird, had one of the three Yankee hits, batting in the clean-up spot.
White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon held the Yankees to two runs on two hits and remained undefeated in his last nine starts.
Rookie Gleyber Torres hit his 20th homer of the season and joined Miguel Andujar to become the first pair of Yankees rookies to hit at least 20 homers in the same season. They are the eighth teammates in baseball history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and the first since Joey Votto and Jay Bruce in 2008.
Otherwise, Rodon flustered the Yankees.
“He was wildly effective,” Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka said. “He kept us off balance that way.”