Yankees 6, White Sox 1: Too many strikeouts and home runs allowed

Nobody would blame you if you decided to stop watching after the first inning to enjoy the beautiful weather in Chicago this fine Saturday afternoon. 

On Friday night night, the White Sox had multiple opportunities with runners in scoring position but could only come up with two runs. Those two singles came off the bat of Andrew Vaughn, and it wasn't enough firepower to overcome home runs from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. 

In Saturday's afternoon tilt, the White Sox had a great opportunity in the first inning to score multiple runs but only managed to plate one. Again, Yankee power hitters dominated by belting four home runs off Brad Keller in his first turn in the rotation, en route to a 6-1 victory. 

Tommy Pham continues to hit at the level of someone who doesn't want to play for the White Sox much longer, and that's a compliment. Pham led it off in the first inning with a single and advanced to second base when Gavin Sheets flared another hit to center field. Andrew Benintendi's check-swing flare with two outs was exceptionally advantageous in its landing spot down the left-field line.

Pham scored, and Benintendi was credited with an RBI double, as the Yankees forgot to cover second in their mad scramble chasing the duck snort. The White Sox did have the bases loaded for Korey Lee, but after watching multiple changeups for strikes, he was caught looking at a 97 MPH fastball down the middle. 

Those changeups from Yankees starter Luis Gil gave a lot of White Sox hitters fits. His changeup had an average velocity of 92 MPH coupled with late movement, constantly putting White Sox hitters in between velocity bands. Gil allowed a hard-hit double to Pham in the second inning with an exit velocity of 99.1 MPH. But in their third face-off, Gil got the best of Pham. A critical call in the at-bat was when home plater umpire Mike Estabrook called a slider just out of the zone a strike. With a 2-2 count, Pham was forced to swing at Gil's crazy changeup with 18 inches of horizontal break. 

That punchout was part of Gil's string of seven-straight strikeouts, which persisted until it was broken by Eloy Jimenez's single in the sixth inning. It didn't matter as Gil ended his day by getting Benintendi to strike out swinging, and Paul DeJong called out looking. On 98 pitches, Gil struck out 14 White Sox hitters over six innings of one-run ball. 

For the Sox, Keller had a lousy afternoon as he threw 84 pitches, lasting just four innings while allowing six runs on seven hits, with four being home runs. Pedro Grifol swapped Keller for Michael Soroka, who had lost his spot to Keller in the starting rotation. Maybe Yankees hitters were going through the motions because the game was out of reach, but Soroka looked far better than Keller. Throwing 82 pitches, Soroka finished the final four innings scoreless while allowing two hits and walking four. While the walk total is still a big concern, Soroka did strike out seven batters and continued to flash increased velocity. 

A game with few bright spots exposes organizational concerns, both of the short and long-term variety. The White Sox have a more contact-oriented offense in a league where power still reigns supreme. Today's game demonstrated why that strategy is ill-advised, and also they made very little contact. 

Game Notes

• Both Pham and Sheets had multi-hit games
• White Sox bottom of the order combined to go 0-for-13 with one walk and nine strikeouts
• Vaughn went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. His season OPS is now .581

Record: 14-32 | Box Score | StatCast