For three innings, Dylan Cease outpitched the American League's best starter.
The second turn through the order is where Gerrit Cole settled the matter.
After wending his way through the first three innings with only walk to his line, Cease's command loosened during a three-run fourth, and he was never able to get back on track. Cole, meanwhile, overcame early (relative) control issues to cruise through seven of the Yankees' nine scoreless innings.
Considering Cole had recently set an MLB record with 61 strikeouts in between walks, the White Sox did an admirable job of resisting pitches outside the zone, resulting in Cole's first three-walk game since last August.
It just didn't result in runs. Four of their seven baserunners against Cole were erased via double plays, and two other potential rallies died with called third strikes that were off the plate. The White Sox probably wouldn't have done much against Cole even with robot umps, but Todd Tichenor's zone didn't help.
Cease opened the game intent on matching Cole. He got 11 swinging strikes over the first two innings alone, including a three-K second. The slider was especially sharp early.
But when the fourth inning arrived, some of Cease's problems with yanking pitches returned. Aaron Judge poked a fourth consecutive pitch away to right field with one out, followed by a Cease walk of Gio Urshela. A slider got Cease back into a count against Gleyber Torres after he fell behind 2-0, but the next curve hung on him, and Torres kept his hands back long enough to swat a double into the left-center gap, which gave the Yankees the two runs they needed. Rougned Odor followed with his own double to score Torres for a 3-0 lead.
Cease completed the fourth, but not the fifth. It didn't help that Andrew Vaughn broke back on a Luke Voit fly that fell in front of him to start the inning, nor that Yasmani Grandal dropped what should've been strike one to Brett Gardner before failing to glove Cease's well-outside fastball for ball two. Gardner singled Voit home. Cease recovered to strike out Judge, but his gloveside-yanking problems led to another walk of Urshela and the end of his day. Matt Foster gave up a two-run double to put the fourth and fifth runs on Cease's tab.
Cease's line looks a lot like his career before 2021: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 54 of 91 pitches for strikes. The one difference can be found in the Statcast page, as the 20 swinging strikes showed what his stuff could do when he could locate it.
The Yankees tacked on a solo shot against Foster in the sixth, then another run against José Ruiz in the seventh.
They didn't score in the eighth, but they came out ahead by denying the White Sox's best scoring opportunity. Nick Madrigal came up with the Sox's lone extra-base hit by roping a Justin Wilson fastball into the left-center power alley past Miguel Andujar, a poor infielder-turned poor outfielder who took an ugly route.
But as Madrigal is wont to do, he retired himself on the basepaths to nullify his presence. He broke for home on Tim Anderson's grounder to third base and was thrown out by 15 feet. He didn't slide because Anderson left the bat on the edge of the batter's box, taking away his path to the plate. He pointed to the bat as if to lodge a complaint, but there wasn't anybody to hear it.
Bullet points:
*Anderson broke an 0-for-17 slump with a single, although Adam Eaton erased him with a double play. Anderson also drew a walk and made a nice sliding stab and throw to retire Kyle Higashioka, so maybe he's on the verge of righting the ship.
*José Abreu went 2-for-4 in a better showing his second game back, but the two spots ahead of him and the four spots behind him went a combined 0-for-19.
*Yoán Moncada's 10-game hitting streak ended, although he did reach base with a walk. He also bumped into Grandal on a pop-up near third base, with both looking dissatisfied by the incident. It was Moncada's ball, but if he called for it, it wasn't nearly as vigorous as an Abreu declaration.
*Silver lining for Vaughn: The misread on the fly was a legitimately surprising occurrence, especially since he made a nice diving catch earlier in the game.
