SONNY DELIGHT
Exiled to pen, Gray rescues Yankees in 13-inning win
Sonny Gray, in his first appearance as a reliever since 2013, celebrates with Kyle Higashioka after his three scoreless innings helped the Yanks slip past the White Sox 4-3 for their second straight win.
CHICAGO — When Zach Britton was asked to get three outs and save an extrainning victory for the Yankees over the White Sox on Tuesday night, the obvious question that rattled around an almost empty Guaranteed Rate Field was “Where’s Aroldis Chapman?’’
That wasn’t answered publicly before the game ended, but without their All-Star closer the Yankees watched Britton give up a two-out, two-run, game-tying home run to Jose Abreu in the 10th.
Fortunately for the Yankees, Britton didn’t cost them a victory, but that was only because Miguel Andujar’s two-out single scored Didi Gregorius and led the Yankees to a 4-3 win in 13 innings.
In his first relief outing since 2013, Sonny Gray provided three scoreless innings to pick up the win.
The Yankees’ second-straight victory enabled them to remain nine lengths back of the AL East-leading Red Sox.
Chapman threw 39 pitches Sunday night in Boston when he flushed a three-run lead in the ninth inning of an eventual 5-4 Red Sox victory in extra innings and he wasn’t needed in Monday night’s 7-0 win over the White Sox.
Britton hit Omar Narvaez to start the ninth inning and threw two wild pitches before Abreu hit a 1-1 pitch to tie the score, 3-3
With their bats stymied by Reynaldo Lopez and Adam Engel taking away a sure home run for the second straight game, the Yankees needed CC Sabathia to be as good as he was for them to have a chance at victory.
Relievers Chad Green, David Robertson, Dellin Betances and Jonathan Holder made sure Sabathia’s gem didn’t go down the drain.
Giancarlo Stanton sent a 3-2 pitch from Tyler Danish over the right-center field fence for his 26th homer that scored Brett Gardner from first in the 10th for a 3-1 Yankees lead.
Sabathia delivered his best outing in over a month when he allowed one run, four hits, three walks and struck out a season-high 12. The dozen strikeouts were two short of the veteran left-hander’s career high.
“Just a little off command wise,’’ manager Aaron Boone said of Sabathia’s previous four starts in which he went 1-3 with a 6.38 ERA and gave up 20 hits and 11 walks in 18 ¹ /3 innings.
Sabathia left after Ryan LaMarre’s ground-rule double with two outs in the sixth and watched Green leave him on second by getting Yolmer Sanchez to.foul out.
Lopez, a 22-year-old right-hander, didn’t allow a hit through five innings. He lost the mini no-hitter in the sixth when Aaron Hicks bounced a double over the left-center field fence.
In seven innings, Lopez allowed a run, four hits, walked two and fanned six. Engel jumped high enough to deny Kyle Higashioka of a home run to center field in the fifth one night after doing the same to Greg Bird.
Andujar, the Yankees’ DH for the second consecutive night, homered off Lopez starting the seventh and tied the score, 1-1. It was Andujar’s 15th homer of the season.
With Holder and Britton throwing in the bullpen and the home ninth approaching, Boone chose the right-handed Holder over Britton.
Holder walked pinch-hitter Nicky Delmonico on four pitches with one out, but retired the next two hitters to send the game into extra innings. It was the second time in three games the Yankees needed more than nine innings for a verdict.