Sluggers each homer as Bombers bash four in rout over White Sox

CHICAGO — This is what they dreamed of back in the winter of 2017 when they made the deal for Giancarlo Stanton. Putting him in a lineup with Aaron Judge, the Yankees imagined the pair of sluggers powering them to wins. Friday night, for the second straight game, Judge and Stanton homered in the same game to power the Bombers to a 10-4 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Yankees (24-8) have won five straight and secured at least a split of this four-game series with the White Sox, meaning that they will be undefeated in 10 series this season. It was the sixth time this season the Bombers have scored double-digit runs, matching their total for the 2021 season.

Judge, Stanton, Joey Gallo and Josh Donaldson each homered and Gerrit Cole posted his fourth straight quality start.

Cole held the White Sox to three runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out nine over 6.1 innings. He got 19 swings and misses, eight on his four-seam fastball. Michael King allowed a run in the ninth.

Judge hit his major-league leading 12 home run in the fourth, a solo shot off Vince Velazquez. He has eight homers in his last 13 games and nine homers in his last 15. Of his 35 hits this season, 18 have been homers. He has also hit six doubles.

Stanton hit his 10th homer of the season in the first inning. It was his sixth home run in his last six games. The two-run shot off Velazquez, scoring Judge, was the eighth of his homers that has given the Yankees a lead or tied a game.

It was the 22nd time since they have been teammates that Judge and Stanton have homered in the same game and when they do you can pretty much call it a night. The Yankees are 21-1 when the two sluggers homer in the same game, but the one loss was against the White Sox. That came in the Field of Dreams game last season in Iowa.

Gallo hit his fourth of the season in the fifth. It was a solo shot off Velazquez and his first home run since May 4 at Toronto. Gallo has a hit in his last three games.

Donaldson hit his second homer in as many nights, his fourth of the season in the top of the ninth.

Aaron Hicks, who was dropped to the No. 9 spot in the lineup for the first time since 2017, doubled in a run in the second. He was 2-for30 coming into the game. Hicks scored on Donaldson’s double. Jose Trevino scored on DJ LeMahieu’s ground out.

Tim Anderson and Donaldson had to be separated at third base in the bottom of the first inning. The White Sox shortstop was diving back to the bag on a pickoff attempt when Donaldson tagged him hard and pushed him off the bag. After he was ruled safe by third base umpire Chris Guccione, Anderson gave Donaldson a shove as he got to his feet. Guccione quickly got between them, but the benches cleared, bullpens emptied and there were minutes of standing around and staring angrily at each other.

Cole got the Yankees out of that first inning, despite some sloppy defense behind him.

Anderson’s line drive deflected off Judge’s glove in right field for a double to lead off the bottom of the inning. With one out, Isiah Kiner-Falefa booted Luis Robert’s ground ball and then bobbled it as he tried to pick it up, and what should have been a double-play turned into a bases-loaded situation for Cole. But he struck out Gavin Sheets and AJ Pollock to end the inning.

The Yankees righthander wasn’t able to bail Kiner-Falefa out in the sixth. The shortstop sailed a throw to first high, allowing Robert to reach leading off the inning. Kiner-Falefa was not given an error on the play, but the next batter, Sheets, made it a costly mistake when he homered.

That cut the Yankees lead to 7-3. The White Sox scored their other run when Cole balked with Robert on third base in the fourth inning.

Kiner-Falefa had been a steady presence at shortstop, but in his last three games he’s been charged with three errors and could have had four for the throw in the fourth.

YANKEES WHITE SOX