Eloy Jiménez finally homered.
And then he homered again.
It would've been a good night even if the rest of the White Sox offense hadn't joined in. As it stands, the White Sox extended the misery of the injury-riddled Yankees and snapped their own five-game skid. Thanks to a persistent rain that only intensified, they could do it in just six innings.
Jiménez's first blast made the difference, as his backspin-laden drive on a high 92-mph Jonathan Holder fastball carried over the wall right just of center to break a 5-5 tie in the fifth inning.
His second one -- a mammoth 446-footer off Chad Green to Yankee Stadium's cavernous left-center field in the top of the seventh -- gave the Sox a little bit of breathing room after the White Sox needed four pitchers to hold the Yanks to one run in the bottom of the sixth.
James McCann then made it back-to-back with a shot to the short porch in right, and the game was halted afterward.
Jiménez provided some finishing power for a lineup that was feisty from the first pitch, which Leury García smacked to center for a leadoff double. He came around to score on Yonder Alonso's two-out single after Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu threatened to strand him by striking out.
The White Sox needed to scrap and scrape and scramble offensively, because run prevention continues to be a mess.
Lucas Giolito picked up his second win of the season the way he won 10 games last year -- wobbling early, but getting a lot of support. Granted, Anderson didn't help when he bounced a throw to allow Giolito's second batter to reach, but Giolito then walked the next two to load the bases before D.J. LeMahieu drove two in with a single. It could've been worse, but García threw to third instead of home, getting Gleyber Torres in a rundown to end the inning.
Giolito then fell behind 4-1 after two after starting the second with a walk, double and RBI single. Aaron Judge drove home a run with a sac fly for the latter run.
But the Yankees have their own run-prevention problems, and those surfaced starting in the fourth.
J.A. Happ issued walks to McCann and Adam Engel over the first four batters of the inning, which isn't easy to do. Up came García, who swung at a first pitch for the third time, and deposited his second double into the right-field corner to bring both runners home.
After Brett Gardner tomahawked a very high Giolito fastball into the first rows of the short porch in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 5-3 game, Alonso returned the favor in the top of the fifth. After Jose Abreu singled, Alonso ripped a line drive that clipped the top of the wall, bounced up and over for a game-tying two-run shot.
Yoan Moncada then followed with a grounder to the left side that Torres couldn't round off, which ended Happ's night. In came Holder, out went Jiménez, and the White Sox took a 7-5 lead.
Giolito made a mess of it in the sixth. He walked LeMahieu, then gave up a single through the middle before Rick Renteria came out for the first of three trips. Jose Ruiz went 1-for-2, giving up an RBI single to Gio Urshela but striking out Austin Romine. Jace Fry then entered to face Gardner and got a grounder to short for a fielder's choice.
With Judge coming to the plate and the rain coming down, Nate Jones entered. Jones looked profoundly uncomfortable in the downpour, nearly beaning Judge with a two-seamer, then plunking him in the arm with a full-count slider. He took even more time facing Luke Voit with the bases loaded, but Voit's line drive to left found Jiménez's glove for the final out.
I'm not sure how Renteria would've managed the last three innings, but he didn't have to. Jones got the save.
Bullet points:
*Giolito's game could've been worse considering he mostly relied on his fastball. He only got one swinging strike between 22 curves and changeups. He issued four walks and six strikeouts over his five innings.
*Anderson is now hitting .488 after going 1-for-4. He also stole his fifth bag.
*José Rondón was the only White Sox to go hitless, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Record: 4-8 | Box score | Highlights
