It felt like a playoff game in the Bronx on Friday night. Two of the best teams in the American League duked it out in a heavyweight battle. Ultimately the Yankees came out on top in an intense pitching duel.
Carlos Rodon was magnificent. The southpaw went six innings, giving up no runs, no walks, and struck out a career-high 13 batters. He made his presence felt early striking out the first five Yankees he faced. Rodon became the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax in 1963 to start a game with five straight strikeouts against the Yankees in New York. It was a preview of how the rest of the night would go for New York. He had enchanted stuff on this night, perhaps even better than on the night of his no-hitter. Rodon only allowed two hits all evening. Unfortunately for Rodon, all the strikeouts resulted in a high pitch count. He finished the night with 95 pitches after six and was tagged with a no-decision.
He ran into some trouble in the third inning when Nick Madrigal committed two errors on the same play putting runners on second and third with one out. Rodon wiggled out of it unscathed with the help of some great defense. Jose Abreu made picked a ground ball and fired it home to nab Miguel Andujar at the plate. Rodon then struck out Luke Voit swinging to end the inning.
On another level. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/T642nRbJw0
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 22, 2021
In the opposite dugout, Mike Montgomery matched him pitch for pitch. On paper, it looked like a great match-up for the White Sox. The White Sox have only lost two games in the previous two seasons to left-handers. Mongomery entered the game with a 4.75 ERA. He bucked the White Sox trend of dominating left-handers. Montgomery was dealing for seven innings. He only allowed four hits, no run, no walks, and struck out 11.
The Yankees got the first run off the ballgame in the bottom of the seventh. Gleyber Torres homered to right field off of Michael Kopech. According to StatCast, Yankee Stadium is the only park that the ball would have been a home run.
The White Sox struck back in the eighth. Adam Eaton was called upon to pinch-hit and drew a leadoff walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch then made a heads-up baserunning play and got to third on a Tim Anderson groundout. Nick Madrigal atoned for his errors earlier with some an improbable piece of hitting. With two strikes he threw his bat at a ball well out of the zone and was able to drop it into right field for an RBI single.
That'll do. pic.twitter.com/vIXMnS1zbP
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 22, 2021
The Yankees threatened in the eighth with runners at the corners and nobody out. Evan Marshall was tasked with escaping the jam. Like Rodon in the third, he got some help from the defense. Tim Anderson fielded a ground ball up the middle and rifled it home to get Tyler Wade out at home. Then Luke Voit lined into a double play to end the inning.
In Play, Out(s) pic.twitter.com/cInLzaNhuF
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 22, 2021
In the ninth inning, the drama continued to mount. The Yankees put in flamethrower Aroldis Chapman, who has yet to allow an earned run this season. Yermin Mercedes drew a leadoff walk and was substituted with pinch-runner Billy Hamilton. Leury Garcia laid down a sacrifice bunt but reached first on an error by Chapman. With the go-ahead run in scoring position, rookie Andrew Vaughn had a chance to be a hero. In a strange twist, he grounded into a 5-4-3 triple play to end the inning.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Yankee bats finally came alive. Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela hit back-to-back singles. The Gleyber Torres ended things with a walk-off single. Torres was responsible for both Yankee runs.
