Tim Anderson said he had never been to Iowa before today, and he said he still hasn't seen "Field of Dreams."
And after tonight, what's the point? He just made his own version.
Liam Hendriks blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning by surrendering homers to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, but it merely set the stage for Anderson's moment. After Seby Zavala drew a one-out walk from Zack Britton, Anderson, in his trademarked fashion, pounced on the first pitch he saw. A sinker on the outside corner didn't sink low enough, and Anderson launched it into the corn in right field to walk off the Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa.
Cue the orchestra.
It's better with strings. pic.twitter.com/h6puNYU7Rc
— Jim Margalus (@SoxMachine) August 13, 2021
If Major League Baseball wanted a showcase of its best talent in its showcase event, it couldn't have drawn it up much differently. Anderson homered. Stanton homered. Judge hit two. Eloy Jiménez went deep, as did José Abreu.
Maybe it was more rock-em, sock-em baseball than you'd want with how much the White Sox have invested in the bullpen, but the White Sox earned their first victory over the Yankees this year. Combine it with Oakland's 17-0 humiliation of Cleveland earlier today, and the White Sox extended their margin in the AL Central to a season-high 11½ games.
It's hard to know how much of this game to take seriously given the unique setting, both geographically and emotionally. The ball acted like it hit different. Not only did Anderson, Judge, and Jiménez combine for four opposite-field homers between them, but Seby Zavala also went deep the other way, and all of them had room to spare.
Hendriks would prefer to write it off, because he was the weak link. Lance Lynn had to grind through five-plus, but he outdueled Andrew Heaney, whose home-run problems followed him to Iowa. The White Sox led 7-3 through five, and while Lynn gave up a solo shot to Brett Gardner in the sixth and left two more runners for Michael Kopech, Kopech shut the door with an impressive inning. When a strike call didn't go his way before a walk in the seventh, Aaron Bummer helped him out. Craig Kimbrel handled the eighth himself, giving Hendriks a cushion.
And Hendriks blew through it. While Tyler Wade led off with a single, Hendriks came back to strike out the next two to get him one out away from a save with the tying run on deck. That tying run came to the plate when Judge poked a fastball out to right to make it 7-6. Hendriks then walked Joey Gallo on five pitches to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in Stanton, who converted himself by ripping a first-pitch slider over the wall in left. Perhaps a better leap gets the job done, but Leury García bonked his head on the wall trying to get lift.
That gave the Yankees an 8-7 lead and Hendriks the blown save, but thanks to baseball's scoring rules, he'll now leave with a win.
Bullet points:
*You could tell Miguel Cairo managed this game because he lifted García for a pinch hitter in the ninth, even though that pinch hitter was Danny Mendick (he grounded out).
*Adam Engel left the game early with a right groin strain. He's supposedly day-to-day.
*Zavala has a .779 OPS, which is crazy.
Record: 68-48 | Box score
(Photo by Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports)
