With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, Aaron Judge drew a walk off Liam Hendriks to save the New York Yankees’ Sunday, providing a walk-off 5-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
It was an unnecessary extra half inning after Aroldis Chapman blew his first game of the season with the Yankees nursing a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, giving up a one-out solo home run over the right-center field fence to promising White Sox rookie Andrew Vaughn.
Clint Frazier started the bottom-of-the-ninth with a single and subsequently stole second before DJ LeMahieu walked and Tyler Wade legged out an infield single.
The Yankees have now won six straight games and for the first time this season, are sitting at nine games over .500 as they continue to push their way toward the top of the AL East standings.
Jameson Taillon continued the Yankees’ recent dominating run of form from their starting pitchers to help keep Chicago at bay. The righty went five innings scoreless innings while allowing just two hits, and two walks, while striking out four.
He helped extend the Yankees’ current streak of scoreless innings thrown by a starter to 35 consecutive frames.
The concerns surrounding Gleyber Torres should be subsiding right about now if they haven’t disappeared already — which they probably should have.
A two-run single in the first inning scored Luke Voit and Aaron Judge to give the Yankees and Taillon an early lead to work with.
It was Torres’ seventh and eighth RBI of the series as he went 3-for-4 on the day. Meanwhile, Judge’s single that helped set the table for Torres helped extend the slugger’s on-base streak to 15-straight games
Gio Urshela put the Yankees up 3-0 in the fifth with an RBI double play, but it was a notable missed opportunity for New York to put the White Sox away early.
With Taillon’s day done after five, the White Sox immediately got to the Yankees’ bullpen when slugger Jose Abreu launched a two-run home run off Wandy Peralta to cut Chicago’s deficit to one.
The Yankees picked up some insurance when Tim Anderson’s throwing error on a double-play ball hit by Brett Gardner scored Gary Sanchez in the bottom of the sixth. It was quickly erased in the seventh though when Yasmani Grandal hit his sixth home run of the season, this one off Chad Green to get Chicago back within one for Vaughn’s game-tier in the ninth.
